Sue Darroch and Matthew Didier's Paranormal Blog

Today mark's the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana, and with that in mind we will feature the Ghosts of Althorp House, her childhood home. We will return to our Freaky Friday feature next week.

Enjoy!

Althorp House - Northampton England

Althorp House circa 19th century

Althorp House and Estate in Northampton has been the home of the Spencer family since the 15th century.Surely a house that has seen so many generations of the same family, and has been the scene of so many historic events ... surely must contain echoes of it's own past .. surely it must be haunted ... and it is.

The first reported haunting at Althorp occurred in the early 19th century.

A guest of Lord Lyttelton, (son-in-law of George John, the 2nd Earl of Spencer) by the name of Mr Drury (later to become Archdecon) had stayed up late playing billiards with his host. Upon getting ready to retire for the evening he was given a strong warning to extinguish all lights before falling asleep. The Earl was very safety minded and concerned about any fires breaking out in the house.

Mr Drury was soon fast asleep.

Sometime later he was rudely awakened by a very bright light that was shining upon his face. Still semi-awake he looked up to see the source of the light. Standing at the foot of the bed was a man dressed in a striped shirt, and cap. The intruder held up a lantern in one hand.

Sitting upright Drury demanded of the stranger to explain what he was doing. His question was met with complete silence. Becoming irritated the clergyman continued to ask questions and continued to receive the same lack of response. Slowly the figure lowered the lantern and began walking away towards the dressing room. Angry now, Mr Drury yelled after the man that there was no exit from that direction and that he intended to complain to the Earl himself in the morning .... turning over Drury went back to sleep.....

True to his word the house guest mentioned the previous evening's incident to Sarah Lyttelton, daughter of the Earl. Mr Drury had thought the man obviously drunk, though not exactly drunken in appearance.

Sarah replied that he must have encountered her Father's favourite and most trusted groom. The groom had been asked by the Earl to check on each room and extinguish all lights in case any guests ever fell asleep with one still burning. These had been part of his duties. At least they had been prior to his death ... exactly a fortnight prior to Mr. Drury's encounter with him!

Just prior to World War One the apparition of a young child was reported in the house's long picture gallery. One of the Spencer daughters who also frequented this room would see the young girl dressed in grey pre-Victorian era clothing near what was known as "the little door." A doorway so small it would only comfortably permit a child. The young Spencer girl never felt threatened, but knew instinctively that this other child did not belong in her "current reality." Perhaps she had been another Spencer daughter from a much earlier date? Though, the ghostly child's likeness was never found in any of the family's numerous portraits. The apparition reportedly never spoke ... only smiled ... and then would disappear ...

A modern view of Althrop House

Albert Edward John, 7th Earl of Spencer (Princess Diana's grandfather) passed away in 1975. Jack as he was known to family and close friends was a shy and intelligent man who had a great love and devotion for Althorp. The house and it's many historical treasures were a keen passion for him. The Earl became an acknowledged expert on it's history and artefacts and served on numerous artistic and antiquarian boards including the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Soon after Jack's passing his apparition was seen by both Spencer family members and employees of the estate. At one time the wife of the butler was so startled to see her late employer that she called out, "How nice to see you my Lord." So real did he appear that she had forgotten he was dead.

He smiled and did not say a word .....

Althorp is a beautiful and peaceful country manor ... loved and cared for by the many generations of the Spencer family that have lived there.

It is not surprising that those who reportedly haunt Althorp seemingly do so because of a deep sense of duty and/or great affection for this lovely house.

For further information on Althorp House, visiting the estate, and/or historical information on the Spencer family please visit the official website located here: http://www.althorp.com

Sources:

Haunted Royal Homes, By Joan Forman (c) 1987

Personal Correspondence

Last year, Chris Laursen worked with television producer Sarah Kapoor (who made the three-part CBC Television series Past Life Investigation in 2004) on a radio pilot called Welcome to the Unknown. They are providing Paranormal Blog with a documentary and interview they did about the idea that 2012 will mark a drastic change on our planet, allegedly due to an ancient Mayan calendar coming to its end.

The Mayan long count calendar and 2012
by Chris Laursen and Sarah Kapoor

December 21st, 2012 is just over five years away. Are you ready? Are you prepared for the end of the world as we know it? That might depend on if you believe in the prophecies that supposedly come with the end of the 5,200-year-old Mayan long count calendar. A new long count calendar begins the next day, but the time period before and after the day of turnover is said to come with powerful force. A force that could change the world as we know it.

The Mayan view of time is cyclical. Time ends and begins anew inside of several concurrent calendars all the same time. These endings and new beginnings are often described as periods of earth shattering events. For example, Guatemalan Mayan elder Chan K’in Viejo prophecized in 1978: “Our Lord Hachakyum will make everything die because of the cold. The grass wishes to die. The seed, the animals all wish to die. And the True People also – we all die. In thirty years Hachakyum will destroy the world.”

Words of this nature evoke powerful images, especially in our age when global warming and rapid environmental change dominates headlines. There is a growing movement of people, not unlike those who felt the new millennium would be “the end of the world as we know it,” who believe that the pre-Columbian Maya accurately prophesized massive change in 2012, change that comes with global destruction and the birth of a new era in humanity. You will find their books at mainstream bookstores and documentaries about 2012 on television.

Detail showing three columns of glyphs from the second century La Mojarra Stela 1 from an article on the Mayan calendar at Blessings Cornucopia

Marina Pinto, who holds a doctorate in Latin American and Spanish history and archaeology from Tulane University in New Orleans, told us, “I took a course on Mayan codices and we knew about 2012 simply because we had to study the Mayan calendar and the end of the long- count happens to occur on that date. And that is it. That is all we really heard about in connection to 2012. There was no meaning attached to that other than the calendar would presumably begin again.”

For most who study Mayan culture, the date means nothing more than that. Indeed, this date marks the end of the Mayan long count calendar – a two hundred year calendar. It could just be the turning over of the calendar, but speculation has risen that includes that this marks the end to civilization as we know it, with some saying a consciousness shift will bring a new era of peace. In the below audio documentary, we talk to scientists and survivalists and who speculate on what’s possible. We also interviewed Robert Sitler from Stetson University in Florida. He’s a professor who had an article published last year on the 2012 phenomenon in Novo Religio, the journal of new and alternative religious movements.

As Professor Sitler tells us, the 2012 prophecy movement is largely made up of people who are not even Mayan. Followers from all corners of the globe are gravitating to the end date as it seems to explain everything from climate change to war.

Prophecy or coincidence? You decide.

In the documentary piece, you will hear from Patrick Geryl, a Belgian man who runs a website dedicated to the 2012 prophecy. He tells us why he believes there will be a massive shift on our planet (specifically, a magnetic pole reversal) that coincides with the end of the Mayan long count calendar in 2012.

We also talk to academics such as Allen Christenson, a Mayanist anthropologist from Brigham University, Provo Utah; and Anthony Aveni, an astronomer and anthropologist from Colgate University in upstate New York. We also speak to Randy Enkin of the Geological Survey of Canada who gives a scientific point of view on magnetic pole reversals and other dramatic geological and environmental changes on the planet.

The documentary and interview with Professor Sitler run about 24 minutes. Just press play below to hear it!

Ponder this, gentle readers…

History is filled with prophecies about the end of days. Do you feel any past prophecies succeeded in heralding a major shift in humanity?

Further reading

Patrick Geryl’s website, How To Survive 2012

Robert Sitler’s website includes contemporary Mayan perspectives on 2012.

Dr. Anthony Aveni’s books Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks and Cultures and Behind The Crystal Ball: Magic, Science, and the Occult from Antiquity Through the New Age (both published by University of Colorado Press).

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is notoriously haunted. Our friend, and colleague Robin recently spent an entire night there while on a press junket.

Since I collect rocks from reportedly haunted locations she brought me back this piece from the actual building (with staff permission of course). It only cost her a car to do it, but that is another story....

Happy Wordless Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

Yesterday Lynn Tucker, and family hosted the PSICAN - Ontario 2007 summer BBQ. Many thanks to Lynn for her efforts in putting together a terrific event for the Ontario staff members! The food was AWESOME!

More photos have been uploaded to the PSICAN facebook group. Was a great time, and nice to see old, and new friends, despite yours truly suffering a wee sunburn ..

.....to a sad story....

The shooter who severely injured a young would-be "ghost hunter" has been sentenced to 19 years in prison. The young lady, Rachel Barezinsky is permanently paralysed, and the internet is still littered with so-called ghost groups that have no problem endorsing trespassing....

Here is a snippet from CNN:

WORTHINGTON, Ohio (AP) -- It has come to be known as the Spooky House Incident: A group of teenagers in this quaint older suburb who tried to scare themselves on a "ghost hunt" and a recluse who responded with gunfire, leaving two lives wrecked.

A pretty blonde high school cheerleader, Rachel Barezinsky, is crippled for life.

Allen S. Davis, roused from an eccentric but otherwise unoffending existence, was sentenced last month to 19 years in prison for what he describes as defending his home.

A year after the shots were fired, the bizarre case has left residents around Columbus torn.

While plenty of people felt Davis got what he deserved for overreacting to teenager antics, many others saw the girls as picking on Davis and facing no legal consequences for trespassing.

"I felt kind of sorry for both sides," resident Jane Leppert said as she sat outside a coffee shop near the village's brick-paved square. "Although I feel very sorry for the girl who was shot, she unfortunately messed around with a kind of paranoid individual who felt the need to protect himself, even against kids."

Full CNN Article Here

Sad....and something to remember when dealing with said "ghost groups" that have no problem with sneaking into cemeteries after hours, entering seemingly abandoned buildings, and otherwise breaking the law.

PLEASE NOTE: The original post on this issue had one person "comment" with what was considered by more than three parties to be racist and sexist comments. Those comments were deleted.

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For this week's Freaky Friday we thought we would do something a little different, and list our fave publicly accessible "haunts" in the province of Ontario. This was inspired by a request made to us for an upcoming media feature.

Here is our list:

Watson's Mill - Manotick Ontario

First brought to our attention by our very own Stu! Watson's Mill is the site of a classic, and tragic ghost story where young love was destroyed by a horrible accident, and the shade of a bride wanders apparently to this day.

Staff are ghost friendly, and visitors are encouraged!

http://www.watsonsmill.com/Home.html

http://www.torontoghosts.org/ottawa/watsonsmill.htm

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Fort George - NOTL Ontario

Outstanding historic location that played a major role in Upper Canadian history. The ghost reports are numerous, and recent! Staff are happy to talk about their own ghostly encounters, and that of the visitors over the years as well!

http://www.torontoghosts.org/niagara/fortgeorge.htm

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The Grand Theatre - London Ontario

Simply gorgeous building that Matthew has single handily explored from top to bottom! A classic ghost story is attached to this famed theatre, but Ambrose Small is not the only spectre to be seen there!

http://www.torontoghosts.org/middlesex/ambrose.htm

http://www.grandtheatre.com/

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Spadina House - Toronto Ontario

By far one of the best historical house/museums I have personally visited in the province. Everything in this museum is unique to this property. The ghost stories associated with it are staff reported, and credible in my opinion.

http://www.torontoghosts.org/spadinahouse.htm

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White Otter Castle, Turtle River Provincial Park Ontario (near Kenora)

Another site that is rich in history, and with some very recent as well as older documented sightings of the ghost of Jimmy Mcouat it's builder.

http://www.torontoghosts.org/northcentral/whiteotter1.htm

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If we were to add a sixth our next fave would be:

Fort Wellington - Prescott, Ontario

Read further here:

http://www.torontoghosts.org/prescott/fortwellington1.htm

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Why these?

We list these as our faves because each has several credible ghost, and hauntings reports attached, and represent actual hauntings as opposed to just folklore, and wishful thinking.

Each is publicly accessible, and in each at least most of the staff will happily talk about their ghosts if approached respectfully.

We also wished to include at least one from each area of this vast province south/north/east and west to give a well rounded example.

Plus each listed above are well worth a visit for more then just their spooky pasts.

Trust me this was not easy. There are several more we could include such as Fort York, Black Creek Pioneer Village, The Enwave theatre, St Marie's etc, but after an hour hashing it out this is our top 5 list...

Next week we'll return to our regularly featured Freaky Friday format, but we do hope that you've enjoyed the list, and perhaps found it helpful with future "ghostly" travel plans.

This week, historian Chris Laursen offers some tips on how to find excellent books on the paranormal.

Finding the best information on paranormal research
by Chris Laursen

It is essential for anyone interested in paranormal research read as much as they can to build knowledge that will be practical in actual investigations. Personal experiences, field work, anecdotes and so forth will only offer you a very small piece of the full range of exploration that has been done on the paranormal. There is amazing, ongoing research on things paranormal, and the body of work published (especially since the creation of the Society for Psychical Research in London 125 years ago) is mind blowing.

I always offer suggestions for further reading on my column, but how do you find these books? Many of them are not available at the majority of bookstores, and it may be challenging to find them at most public libraries. I have stepped into libraries that have only a handful of books on paranormal topics, and not very good ones at that, so libraries with an interlibrary loan system are your best bet to find good reading.

Although you will find some excellent new or popular mainstream books at a large bookstore or public library, such as Deborah Blum’s Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, Will Storr vs. The Supernatural or Gary Schwartz’s books on survival after death research, you will be hard pressed to find books that are put out by independent publishers, were published years ago or, as commonly happens, have gone out of print.

Where are the best places to browse for a good selection of paranormal books? Your local independent used bookstore is likely a good source for older books. Not only are you likely to find some classic tomes of paranormal research, the prices are likely to be quite reasonable. It’s pure joy to search through the shelves of local used bookstores to see what treasures may have arrived in, especially if you live in a bigger city. In downtown Toronto, for example, you can find a good floor-to-ceiling shelf full of books on these topics at places like Eliot’s Bookstore (572 Yonge Street), Seekers (509 Bloor Street West), The Recycled Book Shop (162 McCaul Street), ABC Book Store (662 Yonge Street) and the large BMV stores which mostly have titles published in the past decade (on Bloor west of Spadina, or Yonge north of Eglinton). Just a few examples! I have really struck gold in smaller cities and towns as well, for example Fremont Books (240 St. Paul St.) in St. Catharines, Ontario, which has a surprisingly massive collection of vintage titles from the 60s and 70s. Most communities still have used book shops, and it is very much worth your time to go in, browse and support these businesses, many of which are sadly disappearing. Many of these shops will have a paranormal, new age or occult section, as they are often called. Even the smallest collection can yield some great books for you to enjoy!

So I’ve come across a book that looks interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s a good resource for research. Does it have a bibliography? A bibliography is a list of the sources (e.g. other books, journal articles, etc.) that usually appears in the back of the book, often before the index. On occasion, it is included after each chapter, or sources will be referenced in footnotes on individual pages. Any good book should list its sources, including the name of the author(s), book, publisher and year. It will likely also include articles that have been published in addition to books, for example in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (JSPR). These sources will lead you to other books you’ll be interested in reading, as well. I would say that many of the books in my collection have been discovered through bibliographies.

Although there are exceptions, books that lack a bibliography may not be best suited to finding reliable information on paranormal topics. Unless the book is a personal account, for example of a haunting or alien abduction, it should include a bibliography. Not citing the sources where the author(s) get information (because all authors do get their information from somewhere) is questionable. Personal accounts, however, can be treated as primary (first-hand) sources in your research. The question then is… is this person giving an honest account? That, in itself, is a whole other topic for discussion.

Some libraries and bookstores have a reputation for being haunted. The Willard Library in Evansville, Indiana, for example, has an online ghost cam that allows people to see if they can capture images of the apparitions that browse their books. (Image: about.com)

And what about when I’m looking for specific books? Although I find many random treasures in used book shops, books have mostly found their way into my personal collection by purchasing them online. It’s helpful when I am looking for specific titles.

Several websites provide an online network for independent booksellers around the world. I have found some really wonderful volumes from countries like England and Australia that I doubt I would ever find from North American booksellers simply because they were never distributed on this continent.
My personal favourite websites for finding books in and out of print include alibris.com, ebay.ca, amazon.ca (and its subsidiaries in other countries), and indigo.ca. (The .ca is the Canadian version of these sites, and they all have .com sites usually based out of the United States; many countries have their own national version of these websites. Sometimes it is worth seeing if rarer books are available on other country’s websites because the list of books for sale differs from country to country.) Alibris and eBay in particular have independent booksellers networked through their search engines. eBay predominantly lists individual people selling their own books.

Then it’s up to you to find the right version of the book for your own purposes, whether you just want to be able to read the text and don’t mind a copy with highlighting or notes scribbled in it, or if you seek high quality antiquarian or mint condition books.

Again, the benefit of ordering online (as with used bookstores) is that you can often find bargains and the shipping rates are generally reasonable. Some even offer free domestic shipping depending on how much you spend in an order. For the budget conscious, many of these websites offer significant discounts from the price you would pay at a new bookstore. Always be sure to spend a bit of time browsing these different sites and sellers for the price and quality of book you are happiest with.

But I’d like to encourage those of you who wish to keep your local independent book dealers alive to order the books directly through them. They often can order in the books for you just as quickly as if you order them online, you pay the cover price (you really shouldn’t be paying more unless you live in a remote community, in which case shipping is taken into consideration) and you keep a wonderful tradition of bookselling going in the process. There is, after all, nothing quite like wandering the aisles of any bookstore, new or used, and finding the wonderful treasures that add great value to understanding the paranormal experience.

Ponder this, gentle readers…

What are your favourite all-time books about the paranormal?

Further reading

In future columns, I will continue to write about more great books, but in the meantime, check out Toronto Ghosts’ Recommended Books list.

A carefully considered list of book retailers around the world focusing on speculative fiction, which can often lead you to paranormal non-fiction.

Harry Price Library of Magical Literature

My favourite movie monster from childhood - Godzilla!

"With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound
He pulls the spitting high tension wires down

Helpless people on a subway train
Scream bug-eyed as he looks in on them

He picks up a bus and he throws it back down
As he wades through the buildings toward the center of town

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Rinji news o moshiagemasu!
Godzilla ga ginza hoomen e mukatte imasu!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!
Daishkyu hinan shite kudasai!

Oh no, they say hes got to go
Go go godzilla, yeah
Oh no, there goes tokyo
Go go godzilla, yeah

History shows again and again
How nature points up the folly of men
Godzilla!"

Lyrics Blue Oyster Cult - Godzilla

Happy Wordless Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

I was recently asked about personal experiences on our PSICAN paranormal message board, and decided to share this rather odd one from my own childhood.

Make of this what you will.....

In '73 my Mom was pregnant with my younger sister and my parents were looking to upgrade their home. Often they would take me out with their real-estate agent looking at houses.

One house in particular was in the Bridle Path. Torontonians will know it, but here is a wiki entry for those unfamiliar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridle_Path,_Toronto

The house was brand new at the time, and therefore never lived in. It was gorgeous, imagine a mini - US White House.

Being a kid I was itching to explore, and seeing it was unoccupied I was given free reign. And I did explore on my own bottom to top.

I came to one bedroom that was just too cool!!! It had skylights, and I said to myself this is soooo going to be my bedroom!!!!!

I whirled around intending to run down the stairs and tell my parents, and the realty lady that I picked MY room ... When I saw him ....

He was standing in the corner of the bedroom. A little man, slightly smaller than myself at age 5-6. He was wearing non-descriptive clothing, looked rather stern and was staring directly at me.

I remember being shocked. I remember blinking, looking away, and back again and he was still there. I was probably scared, that I can't really recall, but I do remember knowing he was "wrong" ... not supposed to be there, not "real" ...

I have no idea how much time passed, but eventually I heard my parents and the realtor outside of the door. I looked at my mom in the door frame, and gingerly made my way past the little man who had kept his eyes fixed to my own the entire time.

I said nothing .....

But I loathed the house from that point. My father put a deposit it on it, but the deal fell through ... and I was relieved ...... we eventually moved elsewhere.

Many years later I told both parents about that day. My father was a scientist and both were atheists ... yet they always accepted what I said at face value, and never insulted my intelligence....in other words if I said it happened it happened.

My mother claims to recall that day, and how my demeanour did a 180, but she just wrote it off ... naturally, I said nothing to her at the time.

So there you have it what, who, why I can't say.....beyond he was solid, and looked very real ... yet somewhere in my child's mind I knew he was "impossible" .......

Many research organizations, and groups utilise highly expensive equipment in the field, and I know of at least two that have taken out personal loans in order to fund their purchases.

While we have gone into debt to fund our own interests, to date we have not taken out secured loans or otherwise to do so, despite this becoming more, and more the norm within the community.

My advice to you if you decide to go this route is to seek out the best loans for your own purposes, and circumstances. You can do this by treating this just like an investigation in the field, and arm yourself with as much knowledge beforehand on the types of loans that are available to you, and the various lenders.

Please remember that one need not go into over burdening debt to enjoy this hobby. If you must borrow, do so wisely.

Thank you to the sponsor of this post.

This is another example of a Smackdown writing itself. I was so flabbergasted when I read this headline "Woman labelled as witch, forced to eat burning coal" that it left me speechless and with a sick feeling in my stomach. Here is a snippet:

Jaipur, Aug 16 (IANS) In one more instance of a woman being branded a witch and tortured, an 85-year-old Dalit woman in Rajasthan was mercilessly beaten and forced to keep a burning coal in her mouth on the suspicion that she practised black magic.

Bali Bharu Doli was returning home to her village in Bhilwara district, about 250 km from here, when three members of a family attacked her. They alleged that she was torturing their family through black magic and forced her to eat burning coal.

Doli filed a police complaint Wednesday and two people have been arrested. The police are hunting for the third person in the group, an official from Bhilwara said.

Full article here

I do not feel the need to say any more beyond that this is one of the most sick, and twisted things I've come across in regards to the "paranormal" in a long time, and I sincerely hope those that committed this vile act are duly punished under the maximum allowable by law.

Each Friday we will have a look at the stories and experiences that have been related to us over the years that are amongst our personal favourites. These will include Crypto, Ghosts, Hauntings, UFO's, and other strange events that may be considered Fortean, from in around the Toronto, Canada area .... and since they are from our own personal files will likely not be found elsewhere on the web .... enjoy!

Throughout the TGHRS website you will find several examples of reportedly haunted stretches of road. Here is possibly another:

Haunted Road - Putnam, Ontario

"I cant remember what year it was, only that it was in the early 90's. I lived in London and commuted to Ingersoll every day to a factory job. I didn't like the 401 so I would take Hamilton Road, which goes directly from London to Ingersoll.

One morning I had the weirdest experience during my drive to work. It was mid to late October and still dark- about 6:30am. Hamilton road at that time would enter Putnam with a "jog" to the left, and you'd cross a bridge. The bridge has since been replaced with a straighter stretch.

Anyway, I was doing my usual 85/kmh towards Putnam. As I entered the "jog" and came onto the bridge there in the oncoming lane was a guy in a wheelchair. He looked about 21 years old, and had shoulder length black hair. I believe he had a beard. He had a white t-shirt on and jeans. It was pretty cool out and he had no coat. He didn't even look at me and stared straight ahead, wheeling the wheelchair-heading westbound. He was right in the oncoming lane, and not too the side. Any sane person would have flinched when I came around the "jog" as I was doing a good clip. I shouted "Holy S*it" as he really startled me!

I could see him in my rear view mirror when I passed. It shook me up pretty good as I felt if he was any closer I would have hit him!

A co-worker was always a couple of minutes behind me so when I got to work I waited in the parking lot for him. I said to him "Did you see that crazy person in Putnam, in the wheelchair, in the middle of the oncoming lane?". He gave me that "what the hell are you talking about?" look and said "No".

So.. was he real or a ghost? What freaked me out was how he was (seemingly) oblivious to my presence. I'd love to hear from anyone who has ever been to Putnam and experienced any strange activity there."

Our thanks to the witness for this report. It is quite possible that this incident involved a living person and not a ghost. However, the area in which this occurred is rumoured to be haunted.

Do you have a real life ghost story, an encounter with a UFO, or other paranormal experience/s you'd like to share? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Post your own experiences in our comments section or send us an email. Please post only true life experiences ... we love good fiction, but there are other fantastic blogs out there to post fictional accounts to.

Historian Chris Laursen reviews a documentary aired on British television last Hallowe’en about the ghosts that haunt the London Underground, including an inexplicable photo that may be connected to the man accused of murdering Charles Lindbergh’s young son in 1932.

The Haunted Tube
by Chris Laursen

Why is it that people get creeped out by tunnels? Is it the darkness, a sense of claustrophobia, fear of what might be lurking in its passages – or can we sense something ghostly? Last Hallowe’en, British TV network Five aired Ghosts on the Underground, which delved into what could be the most haunted tunnels of all – the tube, a massive subway network that extends to all ends of metropolitan London, carrying with it one billion passengers in the past year, according to Transport For London.

The 47-minute documentary is not only an excellent series of anecdotes by the staff and passengers of the London Underground on their inexplicable experiences over the past several decades, it also give a stunning tour of the stations, pedestrian passageways, foyers and trains of the commuter train system. Many of the visuals are outright futuristic: brightly-lit, colourful, curving spaces void of humans during the wee hours when the tube is closed, bringing a haunting sense of wonder to places usually tightly packed with commuters.

This is in many ways a documentary that, aside from its high-tech cinematography, has the feel of many classic collections of real-life ghostly anecdotes and gives the viewer the sense of what it is actually like to encounter a ghost without the over-the-top drama usually found in films on this topic. So it is not surprising that the documentary sticks to traditional anecdotal conventions by considering the accidental deaths and suicides that have befallen the London Underground in context of the ghost stories – this may or may not be connected to the strange experiences people have had, but it is always interesting to consider the possibilities.

Images from the Five documentary, Ghosts on the Underground, aired last Hallowe’en in the U.K.

There are a few accounts of Underground security seeing lone people on the closed circuit television system (CCTV) that monitors everything. In one case, a staff member went to investigate a person standing on the platform after the Underground had shut for the night. But he found no one in the station. However, his colleague, watching him via the CCTV, said he was standing right beside the person, still standing on the platform in the closed station. The reverse occurred in another story relayed by a staff member who saw an elderly lady standing in a pedestrian tunnel after the tube had closed. He tried to approach her, but she turned a corner and then disappeared. CCTV footage shows no indication of anyone in the tunnel with the staff member.

Many of the best stories are those where staff reported seeing an apparition, and then found out from other staff that they had seen the same thing some time before. Such cases where multiple people have had a similar experience in the same location at separate times pose strong evidence validating that a ghost indeed lurks there on a repeated basis.

One of the stranger cases occurred on a subway carriage on the Bakerloo Line. Karen Collett had taken a family photo on the line two decades ago, and was very surprised to see what appeared to be the image of a man seated in an electric chair behind the glass of the carriage. The late Maurice Grosse of the Society for Psychical Research investigated it and was astonished by the image. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. Here we have a man sitting in an electric chair of all things, squared up in the Underground. Nobody obviously saw it, and yet the camera did,” he said.

A photographic expert, Robert Cox from the National Museum of Photography, said upon inspecting the negative, “The point with this is that it’s an amateur [point and shoot] camera, so to do manipulation of photographs particularly in the ‘80s, you would have needed quite sophisticated cameras,” he said.

The twist happens when the image is compared to a wax figure in the Chamber of Horrors at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London of Bruno Hauptmann, the accused kidnapper and murderer of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s 20-month-old son in 1932. In 1936, Hauptmann was electrocuted upon conviction in a New Jersey prison despite his continue claims of innocence.

Newspaper clippings on Bruno Hauptmann and a poster seeking the missing Charles Lindbergh, Jr. tell the sad story of the boy’s murder in 1932. In Ghosts on the Underground, Karen Collett’s photo with her family shows a ghostly figure behind the glass that the documentary producers overlaid with the image of the wax figure in Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. The similarity is exact, minus the blue lightning coming out of the man’s hands in the subway photo.

A photograph of the wax figure, a representation of Hauptmann in the electric chair, overlaid with the photograph taken by Collett shows an identical match between the two images, including the pair of suspenders worn, the buttons and position of the hands of the wax figure. “The only difference with mine is that there are blue sparks to indicate he was being electrocuted coming out of both fingers,” said Collett. This has led sceptics, including photographer Robert Cox, to argue that there was a poster in a station advertising the wax museum, however Madame Tussauds Wax Museum confirmed that they have no record of such an image of Hauptmann has ever being used in advertising.

The intriguing denouement of the tale is Karen Collett recalling taking a friend to get a reading from a medium. Collett sat outside while her friend spoke to the medium. Afterwards, the medium approached Collett and told her he had a message for her. “I looked at him and said, ‘But I’m not here for a reading.’ And he said, ‘It’s about your photo. I just want you to know that the man said, I’m accused of something I didn’t do, but I did something else.’ And that was the end of the message.” Bruno Hauptmann had claimed innocence for the crime of killing Lindbergh’s son until the day he died, even after being encouraged that a confession would save him from the electric chair.

This documentary vividly entices viewers to consider the strangeness that lurks in the shadows of London’s Underground. It might make you think again if you see something strange in any subway system.

Ponder this, gentle readers…

Have you ever had a ghostly encounter on public transit?

Further reading

You can watch Ghosts on the Underground on Google Video

A BBC website with more ghosts stories from the London underground

Spirits of the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission)

The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s baby

Image Credit: Copyright Karen Collett (used with permission)

L-R Sue, Chris, and Bonnie.

The media tends to portray ghost investigation as highly exciting, and a thrill by the minute. The reality is that 99.9 percent of the time it is not.

Last Saturday we investigated a well known Toronto pub that is currently experiencing an active haunt. We do not have permission to name the site at this point, but some details will be published to the TGHRS site at the next update. The situation has freaked out some of the pub's staff members, and in fact one (a cook) quit on the spot recently after encountering a rather dreadful apparition. However, as you can see from above the majority of our time was spent holding vigil in a damp, dusty, moldy basement office where the majority of the reported activity has occurred. Not too exciting or spooky sounding is it!

Happy Wordless Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.

I thought that the image above, which depicts the beginning of "ghost month" in Taiwan was just gorgeous, and decided to share it with you.

Taiwanese people hold paper lotus lanterns with candles to release on the first night of ghost month, as an offering to help guide lost ghosts and spirits. What a beautiful looking ceremony!

Image Credit: BBC

Green Peace has certainly found an interesting way of getting their message out in regards to the labeling of genetically modified food - something by the way that I do personally agree with.

Here is a snippet:

In the middle of the night Tuesday, unbeknownst to Abbotsford farmer Rudy Russenberger, Greenpeace activists carved out a giant question mark within a crop circle in his field of corn.

According to Greenpeace, Russenberger grows Monsanto’s NK603 genetically engineered (GE) corn seed.

Monsanto is the leading producer of GE seeds, and has been the focus of environmental activists before. In creating a massive crop circle, Greenpeace is urging the provincial and federal government to label GE foods for consumers.

“Canada is one of the few countries around the world that doesn’t have mandatory labeling for genetically modified food,” said Greenpeace agriculture campaigner Josh Brandon. “We’re asking the Canadian government and the B.C. government to give Canadians mandatory labeling.”

Brandon would not say which owner was impacted, only that the farmer will be compensated by Greenpeace for the damaged corn.

Full News Item Here

And while I do agree with the cause behind this crop circle I cannot fully endorse this method of getting the word out. What next corporate crop circles!

Today's "smack" was inspired by one of the users on our paranormal message board.

Basically this user went on the attack with another one implying the other user was lying at worst, and delusional at best about her experiences based on zero facts other than they did not either understand or comprehend what the other was trying to express.

What really ticked me off is that this user in turn expects everyone to accept what they have to say at face value, and I am quite certain would be very grumpy if people said to her, "I don't believe you." The user despite being warned by three site directors, and two moderators continued on to the point where I had to type up a long missive reminding everyone of our rules, delete all her nonsense from the database, and in turn deliver a polite, but stern warning privately that such behaviour is a violation of our T.O.S, which was agreed to upon registration. UGH! I hate being moderator sometimes.....basically because I'm lazy, and this took up a better part of my morning....of which I can assure you gentle readers I had far better things to do with my time.

You maybe wondering if this user is a die-hard CSICOPIAN .... and the answer is no. Although I will add at this point "sceptics" are very much welcome on our board. Had the user simply said I think what you are describing is natural in origin or their must be a rational explanation I do not believe in the supernatural that would have been very acceptable.

No...this person is not a sceptic ... in fact has related their own perceived experiences....I'm not kidding! Yet had the gall to put someone else down publicly for relating theirs. The user attempted to defend their actions by stating "I am outspoken" ... but in this context malicious, and hypocritical would have been more apt. The fact that they kept taking shots long after the initial point was made, bears this out.

The user who had been attacked merely posted an experience, and was quite open in answering questions, as honestly to how they perceived the answers as possible. What had been attacked were not the experiences themselves, but the person for simply relating them. "I don't believe you" becomes - I think you are a liar. If the attacking user could not see this then they certainly are rather thick or lacking in the very basic social skills.

This entire incident reminds me of people who will claim to be living with a ghost yet deride, and laugh at alien abductees or vice versa. People who will claim to have encountered a Sasquatch, but call Mothman witnesses nut cases. Why people do this is beyond me, particularly with no regard to the feelings of someone else who has had unusual experiences just different than their own.

UGH!

A local woman claims that the photo above is actually her pet dog.

Troy's owner had this to say, "We go up to that spot on Dartmoor all the time. It is only ten minutes away from our home and Troy loves to run about there."

Full Story Here

Original Story Here

What do you think? Is the loveable Troy also the Demon Beast?

Each Friday we will have a look at the stories and experiences that have been related to us over the years that are amongst our personal favourites. These will include Crypto, Ghosts, Hauntings, UFO's, and other strange events that may be considered Fortean, from in around the Toronto, Canada area .... and since they are from our own personal files will likely not be found elsewhere on the web .... enjoy!

Private Residence in Willowdale, Ontario, Canada

"My girlfriend lived in a corner house in Willowdale back in 1978.

As a young teenager, none of us would stay at her house overnight because it was haunted. I personally was there when odd things occurred like the lights all shutting off but the power was still on.

I specifically remember one incident that scared me. There was a wooden candle holder in their family room (an addition, I think) with a candle in it. We were all (3 of us) sitting listening to music one night when all of a sudden the candle 'somersaulted' out of the holder (flipped a few times) and landed on the floor. We all thought it was scary and then tried to rationalize it with all kinds of ideas (the wind, etc). The really weird part is that about a week later her Dad found the candle in the backyard in the woodpile.

My girlfriend told us that they always heard footsteps climbing the stairs at night, and they all thought it was each other. Until one day when they all knew they were in bed and they all heard the stairs creaking.

They (I recall it was her Dad that saw it) also saw an apparition out back by the woodpile (My girlfriend swore she never told her Dad about the "found" candle being in the house - so the apparition sighting at the woodpile really scared her.)

I know that they had a psychic come there and she told them that they were in no danger. I can't remember what she said, but that someone was haunting the house.

They sold the house and moved a few years later.

I wonder who lives there now??"

Our thanks to our reader for the above report.

Do you have a real life ghost story, an encounter with a UFO, or other paranormal experience/s you'd like to share? If so, we'd love to hear from you! Post your own experiences in our comments section or send us an email. Please post only true life experiences ... we love good fiction, but there are other fantastic blogs out there to post fictional accounts to.

Paranormal Studies & Investigations Canada (PSICAN) is now a part of the social networking site Facebook.

If you are a paranormal enthusiast, and have a Facebook account please do join the PSICAN group by clicking on the link. We would love to have you aboard .. :)

Facebook has given PSICAN members, and friends from around the globe an opportunity to get to know each other a bit better, and keep in touch in a fun, and informal way. Lots of goofy pics of the team members to check out as well. ;)

This week, historian Chris Laursen reviews the Fortean Times’ retrospective on 60 years of UFOs in popular culture.

UFO:60
by Chris Laursen

I remember a dream I had once when I was a teenager. In it, I drew apart my curtains and looked out of my window to see hundreds of flying saucers slowly hovering by at low altitude. There was nothing that would stop them. I had such a feeling of dread in the dream. Earth was being invaded.
I blame it on a TV show I saw when I was a wee one. It was called Project UFO (1978-79, NBC). I was at my parent’s friends’ house, sitting on their lush beige livingroom shag with their son. From what I recall, the episode commenced with a woman in a high-rise apartment, and a flying saucer was going around the tower. She opened her curtains – and voila – a window opens in the saucer hovering right outside of her apartment. And what has she come face to face with? Two horses! Egad! A quick Google reveals that I’m not the only one who was fascinated by the horse-headed aliens.

The horse-like aliens in an episode of Project UFO. (From The Project UFO Page)

That silly introduction over with… what a great time to celebrate 60 years of ufology! The X-Files is gathering dust in the annals of TV cultism. Mediums, ghosts and superheroes have captured the television crowd now. One can actually take a pretty sober look at what has happened over the past 60 years, remembering of course that aerial phenomena has been reported long before 1947.

Fortean Times (FT225, Special 2007) does an excellent 33-page retrospective on the topic, asking several knowledgeable people what they think the best evidence is for (or against) this phenomena, talking about terrestrial versus extraterrestrial origins, recalling some strange sightings and asking what their overall opinion is of the past 60 years of ufology.

The issue includes an excellent article by Alan Murdie, best known for his articles on ghosts, on pre-1947 aerial phenomenon in New Mexico, going back to early Native lore and experiences where it seems that strange lights were very much a part of the natural world. There are interviews with controversial abduction researcher Dr. David M. Jacobs (who isn’t afraid to denounce the cruelty of the abduction accounts he has collected), some photos from the McMinnville UFO Festival, looking at the Betty and Barney Hill abduction case of 1961, and an indepth profile of the late Desmond Leslie, “the founding father of the modern fascination with alien contact.” Also interesting are the stories behind stamps that depict UFOs from countries such as Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Grenada and Guyana – not exactly places that come to mind in the popular context of aliens. But UFOs, it is clear, have touched every corner of our humble blue planet.

Each of the researchers who speak on the past 60 years of ufology tend to put their own local geographical spin on what they think the most important evidence is. For example, Australian researcher Bill Chalker unabashedly refers to a multiple-witness, radar-visual case involved the Australian Navy in 1954. Many of the experts concur with Chalker, choosing evidence where military, meteorologists or air traffic control all had technical evidence, often from radar, to match eyewitness reports from the ground or the air. Interesting cases for certain! But…

“All ufologists learn something unique about the UFO phenomenon and like everyone else, our interpretation of the data is subject to our own interests and prejudices,” wrote David Clarke and Andy Roberts, regular contributors to Fortean Times. “As a result, there is very little consensus, which means ufology remains disorganized, chaotic and belief-driven.”

Some of the experts who offer their point of view in the Fortean Times. (From the Fortean Times)

French sociologist Pierre Lagrange talks about how important it is to seek connections between unidentified flying objects and natural phenomenon. He offered further explanation as to why ufology, as a field, is chaotic. “Most of the debate is focused on how to obtain ‘objective’ data from witnesses,” he wrote. “But the fundamental problem is that the alleged divide between subjectivity and objectivity doesn’t exist – it is a pseudo-argument invited by sceptics to maintain an endless controversy.” Lagrange calls on researchers to abandon seeking this objective data from the witnesses themselves, for objectivity is not a mental quality, but rather one developed through observation with specific goals. He suggests, for example, that an organized network of amateur astronomers would be excellent to collect data around the world on aerial phenomenon.

Here lies another key to resolve this chaos, Lagrange suggests, in “that ‘sceptics’ and debunkers are not interested in the solution to the mystery, and that UFO researchers confuse debunkers with scientists because some scientists are debunkers. But science is something completely different.” He’s got a good point there! The question from all of this input is could ufologists put their personal interests and prejudices aside to actually organize? Could they seek objective evidence through a network of sky gazing observers and take witness reports for the subjective data they present? Some good points to ponder among many in this issue of Fortean Times.

The problems faced by ufologists over the past 60 years has made many of them cynical, and many comment in Fortean Times that they feel little to nothing has been learned since 1947. Others concede such a viewpoint is quite extreme. For example, common characteristics can be derived from sightings. Police detective and ufologist Gary Heseltine, editor of UFOMonthly.com, wrote, “These objects have the ability to stop and hover in complete silence, to make instant bursts of acceleration and deceleration, to reverse direction, make right-angle turns and rise and fall vertically. And there are five basic shapes – disc, cigar, sphere, triangle and bright white lights.”
Yes, these are all common traits in many sightings. But what a variety of sightings there are. We’re not just talking about flying saucers or grey hairless aliens with large black eyes. There seems to be every kind of shape and size of object, in every type of situation, from a far-off sighting of a strange object high in the sky, to very close encounters, to even being taken into the craft by a variety non-human beings. And what of the parallels found in popular culture, including science-fiction movies from The Day The Earth Stood Still to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to Contact? How do these all filter into the public imagination and influence the recollections people give of what they saw? Close Encounters, after all, coincided with a massive wave of reports in 1977.

It all is a good reminder that people can only describe things they cannot explain within their own perceptual contexts. People can only go so far in describing something which is often fleeting, moreso when it looks unlike anything they have ever seen before.

All of these questions and many more are addressed in this issue of Fortean Times. Worth picking up for avid ufologists and those interested in strange phenomena alike!

Ponder this, gentle readers…

What UFO story, fact or fiction, first grabbed your imagination?

Further Reading:

Fortean Times
http://www.forteantimes.com/

Karl Pflock and Peter Brookesmith, editors. Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited. Anomalist Books, 2007.

Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden. Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience – The True Story of the World’s First Documented Alien Adbuction. New Page Books, 2007.

Desmond Leslie and George Adamski. Flying Saucers Have Landed. Werner Laurie, 1953.

Jerome Clark. The UFO Encyclopedia: The Phenomena From The Beginning. Omnigraphics, 1998.

So how many of you remember this fun 1945 ghost film? It starred Rex Harrison, Constance Cummings, Margaret Rutherford, (pictured above) and Kay Hammond. It was made long before I was born, and I do consider it a classic amongst ghostly themed movies. The actress who plays the "bumbling medium" in ways is not only accurate in her portrayal, but was herself in fact a spirit medium!

Happy Wordless Wednesday, and thank you for stopping by!

For a list of other Wordless Wednesday participants please click here.