The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings

by Haining, Peter

  As a result of all the human interest in the supernatural over many centuries a certain number of truths have been established all over the world. Ghosts can be almost transparent, for example, or look as substantial as living people. They can materialize when people are awake or dreaming and usually appear around midnight. They may be seen by one person and completely unnoticed by others close-by. They can appear or vanish in an instant, hover, pass through solid walls and cause the temperature in a room to drop dramatically. Their purpose may be to warn, to seek revenge or simply to terrify. It is said that ghosts may also be people who are reluctant to leave the living – or simply do not realize they are dead.

  Such conclusions have been reached after generations of haphazard folklore and garbled personal tales. In the twentieth century, though, with the rapid advance of science, a number of serious theories have been advanced about the various types of supernatural phenomena from haunted houses to apparitions and poltergeists. Those that follow are by no means all, but they have caught my interest during many years of research and are, I think, worthy of consideration as representative of changing and developing ideas.

  Sir Oliver Lodge (1851–1940) was one of the foremost scientists at the dawn of the last century and had made great contributions in pioneering wireless communication, X-rays and electronic theory. He was also deeply interested in psychic research and joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) – the first body specifically formed to scientifically investigate such phenomena – where he put forward the theory that ghosts were “records of events”. He suggested that strong emotions could be unconsciously recorded in matter and ghosts were a “personification of tragic moments in time”. In his book, Man and the Universe (1925) he explained:

  “There may be a room in a haunted house wherein is the scene of a ghastly representation of some long past tragedy. On the psychometric hypnothesis, the original tragedy has been literally photographed on its material surroundings, nay, even on the ether itself.”

  The great scientist was also fascinated by the concept of communicating with the dead through spiritualism and argued that it was feasible to tap into this “unseen world”. He explained his belief in a second book, Phantom Walls (1929):

  “I, and many others, are growing aware that the communication between intelligent beings is not limited to the familiar methods, by voice and writing, telegraphy, and other methods we have invented – but occasionally we have telepathic communication with each other. By our study we have gradually become convinced that those who have departed are not really isolated from us. Can we prove that memory and character do survive? We have to prove it by psychic means and by employing proper means of communication you find that the person you knew is still there, that he remembers that things that happened, that his character is unchanged. My thesis is that the spiritual world is the reality and this life only a temporary episode.”

  A contemporary of Sir Oliver in the SPR, Frank Podmore (1856–1910) was, however, much less convinced about spiritualism after exposing as frauds a number of mediums who claimed to be in touch with the other side. However, the thorough and exemplary investigations by this man – who became known as “the prosecuting attorney of the SPR” – led him to propose his own theory about haunted houses – especially those beset by poltergeist phenomena. His conviction that children were usually to blame got him labelled as the exponent of the “naughty little girl” theory.

  Podmore investigated many famous cases of the time and decided that for proof it was vital to have good, sound evidence from intelligent witnesses, plus phenomena of a kind that only a paranormal interpretation was possible. He found neither element together in the vast majority of the enquiries he pursued – but a child present in most of them. But there might be another explanation, as researchers EJ Dingwall and Trevor Hall wrote in their case history Four Modern Ghosts (1958):

  “It was thought by some that to suppose all the phenomena in the cases examined by Podmore were due to the tricks of naughty children, to the folly of mal-observation, faulty reporting or actual hallucination of the witnesses went too far. It seems likely that much of the confusion with which the whole subject of poltergeists and hauntings is beset is due to the fact that a clear distinction had not been made between what are called ‘haunted house’ phenomena and ‘poltergeist’ phenomena. In so-called haunted houses the principal phenomena are usually unexplained noises, apparitions and various sensory effects such as the feeling of unseen presences. Poltergeist phenomena, however, usual consist of noises, mysterious stone-throwing and movement and breakage of household objects. Part of the confusion may be due to the fact that it has been common to speak of a house being ‘haunted’ by a poltergeist, but it is essential that a clear distinction be made between haunting and poltergeists before any explanations of the various phenomena can be discussed. It seems clear that Podmore’s ‘naughty child’ theory was meant by him to apply to those cases where breakages and other disturbances were thought to be caused by a mischievous entity and not to other cases where few of the boisterous pranks occurred.”

  In 1911, Sir William Barrett (1844–1925), a leading figure in the foundation of the SPR, published a list of four theories that had emerged as a result of all the society’s research in his book, Psychical Research. They are worth quoting verbatim as an indication of the conclusions being reached about hauntings from the first application of scientific experiments and after centuries of guesswork:

  1. The popular view that the apparition belongs to the external world like ordinary matter and would be there whether the percipient was present or not. Some cases appear to support this view in which the phantom was followed from place to place and seen by different independent observers at successive points. This theory, however, has insuperable difficulties, among others that of accounting for the clothes of the ghost and it may be dismissed.

  2. That the phantom was projected from the mind of the percipient and was, therefore, a hallucination; not a baseless one, but created by a telepathic impact from the mind of a deceased person. Here we have the difficulty of explaining why the phantasm should be dependent on a particular locality, although with our present knowledge this theory appears the most plausible.

  3. That the phantom was due merely to expectancy and telepathically transferred from one mind to another. This may account for some cases that have been cited, but not all.

  4. That some subtle physical influence is left in the building or locality that affects certain brains and creates the hallucination.

  Sir William summarized: “To these we may add an extension of the second theory that hauntings are due to dreams of the deceased, telepathically projecting scenes of their life on earth to some persons there present. Finally, those who have not made a study of the subject will have their own theory that all the alleged phenomena are due to delusion or fraud.”

  Another person who had also been carefully studying ghosts at this time was the American psychologist and philosopher, William James (1842–1910). Under the auspices of Barrett, he had founded the American Society for Psychical Research and from his base at Harvard University instituted wide-ranging enquiries into mediums and hauntings in America that would ultimately make him one of the most influential figures of his day. James would, indeed, encourage many others on both sides of the Atlantic to consider the subject a field worthy of research. In an article written shortly before his death, the American took up the lead of his mentor about ghosts and hallucinations, declaring:

  “Apparitions, I believe, are objective hallucinations, lying dormant in the invisible segments of our minds – vide Jung’s ‘collective’ – which are susceptible to an interaction from the minds of others, even total strangers. When this interaction takes place, a hallucination emerges.”

  There were those, though, who argued that if a “solitary percipient” saw an apparition miles away from a possible “interacting incarnate” – across woodland, for instance – how could this argumen
t be true? Whatever the views of William James’ theory, he stimulated ideas from other like minds such as the French physiologist and Nobel Prize winner, Charles Richet (1850–1935). A cautious, careful and sceptical investigator who strongly criticized many reports of paranormal phenomena during the early decades of the century, Richet undertook his own studies and became one of the leading figures in European psychical research. In his thought-provoking memoirs, Thirty Years of Psychical Research (1923), he posed three questions about ghosts – and then proceeded to answer them:

  1. Is it an impression left on things, an emanation from them?

  2. Is it the astral body of a deceased human being?

  3. Is it an intelligent but non-human force that comes to notify its presence?

  Taking the first point, Richet wondered if there was a mysterious energy stored in things that might awaken images in sensitives – like a magnet seeming inert until a piece of iron is placed near it. If this was so, the principal cases of haunting might be explained. This did not amount to an explanation, he said, “but a verbal expression given to a phenomenon that is not understood.”

  Turning to the second point that phantoms might be those of deceased persons, Richet found the explanation full of contradictions:

  “Why those persons only and not others? For millions of tragic events occur continually, everywhere, without causing any haunting whatsoever. Often insignificant causes would seem to have decided the ghost to return. And this ghost seems to have a very curious mentality: he throws stones, breaks bottles and opens doors with violence. He is frankly inept and shows an ineptitude that belongs to the animal more than to man. Since intelligence has vanished with the brain, and the body has undergone putrefaction, how can the dead man live again, even under a nebulous phantasmal form.”

  The third hypothesis, the Frenchman said, asked if there were spirits who are intelligent powers, entirely different from humanity, able to do anything objectively or subjectively. Again he revealed himself strongly opinionated:

  “This hypothesis is convenient, even much too convenient – for to admit all-powerful and omniscient beings is much the same as to admit our entire ignorance. I prefer to suppose a human energy similar to the ectoplasm coinciding with a certain degree of lucidity, causing such and such forms to appear. But this, too, is unsatisfactory; even ridiculous. Nevertheless, being unable to see any cause, I would accept this opinion provisionally as a working hypothesis such as one is obliged to use in a dawning science.”

  “Dawning science “ was an apt description of the widening search for an explanation into the mystery of ghosts and hauntings after the horrors of the First World War had subsided Now, though, ideas began to be put forward from often unlikely sources. One such was J W Dunne (1875–1949), an aeronautical engineer who startled the public with his book An Experiment With Time in 1927. In this he described how a number of precognitive dreams he had experienced led him to formulate a theory that Time was not a lineal flow but a sort of geography accessible to the dreaming mind. The book was to intrigue a large number of readers and prove influential on other writers such as E F Benson and J B Priestley. The success of the work prompted several sequels including The New Immortality (1938) in which Dunne discussed the paranormal and offered his own explanation for ghosts:

  “Everything which has established its existence remains in existence. A rose, which has bloomed once, blooms forever. As for man, he is not accorded distinctive treatment: he merely remains with the rest.”

  It was to be a theory that would resonate with the public and challenge members of the SPR and other groups studying the paranormal as scientific enquiry delved into time travel, dreams of the future, precognition and extra-sensory perception (ESP). The discussion soon found its way into the new medium of radio opening up even wider public debate. Professor C E M Joad (1891–1953), for years one of the most popular panellists on the weekly BBC radio programme, The Brains Trust, was a friend of Harry Price and investigated with him a number of the most famous hauntings of the time. Joad was an unorthodox man who liked to be provocative on and off the air. He suggested that a ghost might be a hybrid being, created by the disembodied spirit of a dead person, combining with some substance or “piece of matter” in the spiritual universe, to produce a temporary, though very elementary intelligence. Writing in The Listener in 1938, Joad explained:

  “The human being is not all body. In addition, most of us would claim that as well as a body we have minds or souls. But the mind or soul may not be a simple thing like an element: it may be a complex like a chemical compound resulting from a mixture of the elements. One the body; the other – for want of a better name – is sometimes called the “psychic factor”. At death the compound is broken up and the mind, therefore, goes out of existence. But what of the elements of the compound? We know what happens to the psychic factor. It may persist; it may, for example, combine with the body of a medium in a trance to form the temporary mind, which sends “spirit” messages. It may even combine with pieces of matter other than human bodies to produce the moving of small objects, the rapping of tables, the ringing of bells, and the phenomena usually ascribed to poltergeists.”

  Another voice that became familiar to radio listeners was that of Sir Ernest Bennett (1867–1947), a government minister who urged serious consideration of the paranormal in parliament. Apart from sitting as MP for Central Cardiff, Bennett was also Assistant Postmaster-General and the first politician to join the SPR, serving as its President from 1932–5. In a broadcast entitled “What I Believe About Apparitions” in June 1939 he outlined the SPR’s four conclusions about ghosts and then continued:

  “My conviction, after a careful study of the available evidence for many years, is that, in general, apparitions of the dead may be, and frequently are, caused by telepathy from the dead. In other words, that beyond the portals of death a discarnate mind persists still capable of the conscious transference of thought to a living percipient. This theory fits the facts best in the case of those recognized apparitions that carry with them indications of identity and exhibit some knowledge of earthly affairs. It is at first sight less appropriate to those unrecognized and unrelated phantasms which might be mere dream-fantasies of the dead. How closely do they resemble certain phenomena of somnambulism!”

  Sir Ernest went on to discuss what he referred to as “the time limit” of apparitions:

  “Identification of ghosts can, of course, supply a clue as to date, but personal recollection of an individual’s features – apart from the aid of photographs or pictures – becomes less and less reliable as the years advance and may almost fade out towards the close of a long life. The apparition, therefore, of a person who died some fifty to a hundred years ago would be in nearly every instance unrecognized. On the other hand, we may regard some phantasms as dated by the clothing which they appear to wear. In summary, one may suggest that while recognized apparitions of the dead normally occur within a year or so of death, telepathic activity may survive the grave for an indefinite period and, in rare and sporadic cases become effective after long intervals of time, in accordance with laws of which we know nothing.”

  Bennett also added his own contribution to the “perplexing phenomena of haunted houses and localities” and the difficulty of explaining how many well-attested ghosts had become associated with certain houses, rooms and even roads. He told his listeners:

  “If we accept the view that apparitions of the dead are due to the post-mortem agency of the deceased, the local character of the haunting might be explained as due to the deceased man’s personal attachment to the house, or the association of the house with certain outstanding experiences of happiness or misery during his occupation of the building. Several well-supported local cases are on record where phantasms of living persons who have left their homes are repeatedly seen in familiar surroundings of their earlier days; and if knowledge of terrain survives the grave, it may been that the spirits of the dead ‘delight to dwell amid
the scenes in life they loved so well’. Post-mortem agency fits the facts best, and to me it seems that in some inscrutable fashion the woodwork and masonry of a house may exert some physical or mental influences which cause certain individuals to see the phantasmal figure of a former resident.”

  The engineer, mathematician and radio pioneer George Nugent Tyrell (1879–1952) devoted some forty energetic years of his life to psychical research. He became a leader in experimental work and constructed a number of devices that obtained highly significant statistical evidence for telepathy and precognition. Tyrell had an acutely original mind and probably penetrated more deeply into the spectral world than anyone else since the founding of the SPR. He was responsible for coining the phrase of ghosts as “footprints in the sands of time” and declared in 1941:

  “Apparitions are the sensory expression of dramatic constructs created in regions of the personality outside the field of normal consciousness . . . They are the proof of the existence of personality after death, the imprints, as it were, made by once-living forces.”

  Other experts in Britain and America were soon agreeing with Tyrell’s suggestion that a ghost was not so much the physical manifestation of a dead person as the dramatization of a telepathic impulse transmitted before, during or after death. As Martin Ebon, one of these experts, later explained: