[666 Effect]
Hello, and welcome to the very first show, Is There Anybody Out There? I’m your host, Matt Lloyd, and thank you for joining us for the first show.
[Applause]
Hopefully, you’ll have seen the trailer for this podcast video series, but if you haven’t, never fear, help is here!
You can check out our trailer on our social media channels, including our YouTube channel, @clubmattproductions or on the blog on our website at www.clubmattproductions.co.uk. The trailer will be released as a podcast, followed by this show, on iTunes shortly.
So, what have we got coming up on the show? We’ll have the parapsychology lesson of the show, covering a brief introduction to parapsychology and also ghosts and hauntings. We’ll also cover this month’s paranormal investigation, which was initially carried out in conjunction with Extours, who can be found at Extours.co.uk. See how we got on in the investigation later in the show. Finally, we’ll share some ghost stories and experiences with you that have been sent in by our listeners, viewers and team.
And if you’re wondering where we went for our first paranormal investigation, we went to Dead Woman’s Ditch on the Quantocks, in Somerset. See how things went later in the show.
But now for the parapsychology lesson of the show, a brief introduction to parapsychology, ghosts and hauntings.
[Insert Jingle]
Some basic information on parapsychology. The study of the paranormal is known as Parapsychology and is the scientific study of anything that is not considered normal or defies explanation. In other words, Parapychology is the study of paranormal psychological phenomena, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and psychokinesis. It also includes the study of other paranormal claims, such as near-death experiences, apparitions and synchronicity.
Parapsychology is also known as psychical research. The word ‘Parapsychology’ was first used in 1925.
There are many other forms of paranormal phenomena including, ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, UFOs, witches and fairies, time-slips, vampires, legends, monsters (otherwise known as cryptozoology) – the list is practically never ending. We’ll look at all of these areas throughout the series. Basically, the paranormal can be described as being anything which defies normal explanation.
For this month’s subject, we’ll look at ghosts and haunting.
As Albert Einstein said, ‘Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another’. This is his statement from the first law of thermodynamics and basically means that the total amount of energy in a system remains the same unless energy is added from outside the system.
The human body contains energy and is both a consumer and producer of energy. The human body also contains electrical energy, through electrical impulses, electrical generation, electrical signals, and charged elements.
The chemical potential energy stored in a dead body eventually will be decomposed by bacterial activity, thus recycling energy into the environment as heat and other potential forms of energy.
However, recently, an interesting study was conducted where terminally ill patients who were staying in hospital were signed up and, near to the point of death, were transferred to a bed attached to a large scale. It was noted that every occasion at the point of death, a substantial loss in weight was recorded. Initial thoughts were that this was some form of energy or electrical energy leaving the body that formed what we call the soul. Unfortunately, the study neglected to account for the loss of weight through the loss of bodily fluids at the point of death. So, until a second study is carried out, with adjustments made for the loss of bodily fluids at the point of death, this study is inconclusive.
What is parapsychology?
Parapsychology involves the study of a variety of proposed psychic phenomena by scientists and scholars, including for the search of evidence of their existence.
Parapsychologists study a wide range of paranormal experiences. Lets look at some of the terminology and phenomena.
Extrasensory perception otherwise known as ESP.
Work on ESP involves three topics;
Telepathy, which looks at the transfer of information between individuals by means other than the known senses. An example of this is that Simon is involved in a plane crash and thinks about Emma. At the same time, Emma hears an internal voice ‘telling’ her that Simon has been involved in a plane crash.
Precognition, which looks at the perception of information about future events, also referred to as future sight, second sight, and prophesy. For example, Billy dreams that Karen will have an accident on her bicycle, and a short while later Karen falls off her bike and hurts herself.
Clairvoyance, which is the obtaining of information about a place or event by unknown means. Parapsychologists sometimes use the term ‘remote viewing’ to refer to instances of clairvoyance in which information is acquired from a geographical location. Interestingly during the Cold War, Russia, the USA and the UK Intelligence and military organisations experimented with ‘remote viewing’ for the purpose of spying.
Psychokinesis otherwise referred to as PK.
This is the influence of the mind on an object, physical system, or biological system, without physical interaction, which is abbreviated to PK, and has the three following topics;
Macro-PK which is the large-scale movement of physical objects with the mind, sometimes referred to as ‘telekinesis’. An example of this would be someone holding a spoon in their hand and bending it without any physical force being exerted.
Micro-PK which is the mental influence over small-scale physical systems, such as dice and electronic random number generators, and is only detectable through using statistics. An example of this would be a person who consistently beats the odds when playing casino games with a dice.
Bio-PK which involves the mental influence over biological systems, including plants, insects and animals, in vitro samples, and humans. This area of research includes remote staring detection and distant healing. A classic example of this is someone sitting at a table in a café when the hairs tingle on the back of their neck and they feel that they are being watched, only to turn round and see someone at another table staring at them.
What is PSI?
Often it is difficult in practice to distinguish between the areas we’ve just discussed regarding ESP and PK. Therefore, parapsychologists often use the neutral umbrella term ‘PSI’ to denote the unknown factor underlying both ESP and PK.
Psi is a general term used in parapsychology for the phenomena studied by the field, including cognitive ones such as mind-to-mind communication as well as physical ones such as the movement of an object with one’s own mind.
When did parapsychology begin?
Parapsychological ideas have deep historical roots, however, the founder of parapsychology as a scientific pursuit has been attributed to Joseph Banks Rhine, who in the 1930s along with his colleagues at Duke University carried out studies of extrasensory perception using means such as dice-rolling and card-guessing to seek evidence.
What are paranormal phenomena?
Paranormal phenomena include events that cannot be explained according to current scientific understanding of the world. Such events seem to defy, for example, established facts about the workings of perception and physical motion.
So, what is a ghost? A ghost is described as being a manifestation of a person or animal who has died, and occasionally a vehicle or mode of transport. Ghost, soul or spectre of a dead person, usually believed to inhabit the netherworld and to be capable of returning in some form to the world of the living. According to some descriptions provided by witnesses and believers, a ghost may appear as a living being or as a nebulous likeness of the deceased or, occasionally, in other forms.
Belief in ghosts is based on the ancient notion that a human spirit is separable from the body and may maintain its existence after the body’s death. In many societies, funeral rituals are believed to prevent the ghost from haunting the living.
In China ghosts are widely believed to exist. The Chinese have a strong belief that the soul is composed of three parts, named the Superior, the Inferior, and finally, the Ghost’s Spirit, which will reside within the ancestral altar, normally found within the home. The other two parts of the soul are free to go whey they will, and according to Chinese mythology and folklore a deceased person can be seen in different places at the same time.
In Eastern Europe within the Baltic States there is still a great deal of superstition and fear of ghosts.
A common thought is that ghosts cannot cross running water, however, frequently hauntings take place by rivers, streams and where underground streams exist.
A haunting, however, consists of a multitude of events. Usually, it is a home or workplace that has repeated events of an unexplainable nature. There are many theories of how regular or yearly hauntings appear and one of them is the stone theory or residual haunting.
Much in the same way that we can record on DVDs and CDs, the stones of buildings or the very atmosphere of an area have been imprinted with events and actions of the past. It’s suggested that some hauntings are caused by the release of historical information from rocks, brick, and other materials. This theory originated from 1972 and the British television play The Stone Tape, which is about a team of scientists that investigated an alleged haunted Victorian mansion.
There is normally no interaction between the apparitions and the person or persons who can see them, and it is the same as watching a film play out in front of you. Most psychic investigators believe that what is seen is just a playback of events when the conditions are right. It is thought by many that buildings and places will carry the memories of events, particularly where they have been traumatic.
Then there are deathbed apparitions, who are normally seen by the person who is seriously ill or injured prior to their death. Occasionally those who are nursing or caring for or visiting that person may also see or glimpse long dead relatives or friends who have come to guide the dying person.
There are many theories and many types of ghosts. Most parapsychologists prefer us to use the term ‘apparitions’ rather than ghosts. There seems to be a link between electricity and haunting. It is not unusual for a building that is said to be haunted to have large electricity bills.
Throughout history, there has been mention of spirits and ghosts. The Bible gives the example of the ghost of Samuel, who is questioned by Saul as to what would happen in the future. Samuel was called from his eternal rest by a wise woman who had the skills to call upon those who had died; today that would be called the art of necromancy. Samuel answered the questions Saul asked of him, and was distressed to hear the answers, which pointed to Saul’s downfall and the death of his sons, all of which came to pass.
There are many different types of ghosts;
Poltergeists have been termed as mischievous or malevolent spirits, who frequently feed from the energy of young people as they enter puberty. There have been many theories – the Ancient civilisations believed that Poltergeist activity was caused by demons and devils. The word ‘Poltergeist’ is believed to have originated in Germany and translates as ‘to knock’ or the ‘rumbling spirit’.
During the 1970s, A. D. Cornell and Alan Gauld examined five hundred poltergeist cases and put all the data collected into a computer to analyse and to find any similarities in the five hundred cases. The cases of poltergeist activity had been collated from documented cases during the 1800s onwards. They discovered that;
24% of cases lasted over a twelve-month period
64% involved the movement of small objects
12% included the opening and shutting of windows and doors
58% of poltergeist activity was at night
36% involved the movement of larger pieces of furniture
16% of persons involved had conversation/communication between themselves and the entity
48% involved knocking and rapping on walls, doors, furniture, ceilings and roofs.
Poltergeist activity frequently takes place when a certain individual is in the area, normally the home, and normally will last anything from a few weeks or months – rarely will it continue for longer than a year.
Common poltergeist activity involves loud noises, rapping, tapping, smells which are usually obnoxious, unknown lights, electrical malfunctions, bells and telephones ringing, writing on the walls, doors opening and closing, shattering of objects and windows.
Many people believe that poltergeists are a form of spontaneous psychokinesis.
One of the most reported types of ghosts is that of the phantom hitchhiker. There have been hundreds of reports of car drivers picking up a lovely blonde woman wearing a white ball gown in Chicago, USA. If motorists fail to stop, she has been known to jump onto the bonnet of the car before disappearing.
In England, one of the most notorious ghostly hitchhikers is a young woman who for nearly forty years has been seen regularly hitching a ride from the top of Blue Bell Hill, Maidstone, Kent. She always insists on sitting in the rear seat of the car and will give her destination. When the driver arrives at the given address, they turn and find their passenger has gone. No one knows who she is.
Another type of apparition is that of the Crisis Apparition.
This is when an apparition appears at a time of crisis, normally when a person has died. The person seeing the apparition is normally a close friend or relative. Crisis apparitions are not confined to those who are dying or on the brink of death, but it can also apply to the living. This usually happens during a time of crisis. What appears to happen is that the person who is in crisis somehow manages to project an image to another person even if they are not aware of doing so. Just as unseen radio waves travel through the air, is it not possible for the brain to act in the same capacity as being a receiver and a sender?
Apparitions are not confined to just the land. The Flying Dutchman is said to have sunk during a storm in 1641 with the loss of all lives in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope. As the ship floundered it is said that the Captain decreed he would sail round the Cape even if it took him til Doomsday. The Flying Dutchman has been sighted on countless occasions, and, is said to be a sign of ill luck.
What are orbs?
Orbs have become a very popular subject in the world of the paranormal. With the advancement of photography and filming they have been seen more and more. Frequently they are just dust particles with light reflecting from the particle itself.
But there are other orbs that appear to respond to commands from those who are viewing them. Photographic orbs are often explained as being the results of flash/ambient light that reflects off a variety of things, including small water droplets, miniscule insects, moths and dust particles.
Then there are orbs that appear on film and in photographs and appear to contain faces or unexplainable symbols. Many people believe that orbs are the energy of the deceased, and that the spirit is composed of an energy which is manifested into orbs. They are also seen in areas prior to manifestation of apparitions.
Then, of course, there are Banshees.
The word ‘Banshee’ originates in Celtic traditions of Ireland and Scotland and translates as ‘woman of peace’. It is said that in Ireland, when a person died, a woman or women would stand outside the house of the deceased and sing. The banshee legend appears to have stemmed from these singers, but with the banshee appearing prior to a death and wailing outside a house.
Psychokinesis originates from the Greek word ‘Psyche’ and translates as ‘breath or soul’. Kinesis translates as motion or movement. So, psychokinesis is the alleged ability to move objects or change their shape through the power of thought, without using physical means.
Necromancy originates from the Greek translating as ‘dead divination’. This refers to the awakening of the dead and the spirits of the dead for reasons of magic. Used by warlocks, wizards, witches, and magicians. Examples of this practice take/have taken place in Haiti, where the corpses of the dead are brought back from the dead by a high priest/magician who calls upon Baron Samedi (the protector of the graves and the dead).
Ectoplasm originates from the Greek Ektos, which means outside, and plasma, which translates as something moulded or formed. Ectoplasm has been described as being a thick vapour that can be emitted from any orifice of a trance medium’s body. It is also seen as haze or wispy smoke that appears prior to the manifestation of a figure/ghost/apparition or as the residue of spiritual activity. There is a belief among many parapsychologists that ectoplasm is also a main factor of psychokinesis.
And that brings us to the end of this show’s parapsychology lesson of the month! Next show, we’ll be looking at mediums, clairvoyants, and psychics.
[Insert Jingle]
And now its that time of the show where we cover this month’s paranormal investigation!
[Insert Jingle]
This month’s paranormal investigation team consisted of myself, the resident amateur trainee parapsychologist, our very own trainee Resident DJ, Mike Winter, and a member of the production team, Cherie Winter. So, lets give it up for them as they now join me on the show.
[Applause]
Ok, so I’ll give you a bit of background to the paranormal investigation, then we’ll discuss as a team what happened and what we experienced during the evening.
We got to Dead Woman’s Ditch, Over Stowey, on the Quantocks for about 845pm. The event organisers from Extours were already there in the car park from the earlier paranormal investigation that took place prior to ours. They were very friendly and made themselves known to us. The group was about 11 of us, plus one of the organisers.
At 9pm on time, the event started.
We were led into the woods to a small clearing with a table with some equipment on it. There were a number of K2 meters, a number of dowsing rods, a set of wireless headphones and some torches. For those of you not familiar with paranormal investigation equipment, I’ll cover these briefly in a little while for you.
The host went through the background of Dead Woman’s Ditch with us, covering it comprehensively as we were walking into the woods. According to the host, and records, Dead Woman’s Ditch is sometimes associated with the murder of Jane Walford by her husband John back in 1789, but the name actually predates the murder, appearing on an earlier map. In 1988 the body of Shirley Banks was found one mile from the site and John Cannan was found guilty of her murder and is still in prison now.
So, back at the table and the K2 meters and dowsing rods were handed out to those members who wanted them, whilst members of the group took it in turn to wear the headphones that were connected by Bluetooth to the hosts phone and the Necrophonic App, again, I’ll briefly explain what this is in a moment.
Ok, so the equipment I’ve mentioned so far, lets start with the K2 meters. These are very similar to EMF meters, which are Electro Magnetic Field meters. EMF meters can measure AC electromagnetic fields, which are usually emitted from man-made sources such as electrical wiring, and electrical equipment. As humans, we ourselves generate an EMF field through the heart and cortical tissue. The theory is that when apparitions appear, they interact with the environment through electromagnetic fields, so any alleged paranormal activity should be detected using an EMF meter. The more the activity, the higher the number on the EMF meters display. A K2 meter is similar to an EMF meter in that it detects the same activity. However, a K2 meter has a colour spectrum for the readings as opposed to numbers on a display. This is to make it easier to detect how strong or how above normal the EMF reading is.
This simple hand-held device is a standard paranormal investigation tool and is usually the first piece of equipment an investigator will purchase, and this was the case for myself as well.
The purpose of any electromagnetic field meter is to locate sources of electromagnetic radiation such as magnetic, electric, and/or RF/microwave and provide a reading of relative strength and direction of the EM field. The thought in using this meter is to find indications of paranormal activity.
Investigators will look for sudden erratic reading or spikes from this device. The investigators can see this by the lights on the meter, going from greens up through ambers, to reds.
An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by electrically charged objects, it affects the behaviour of charged objects in the vicinity of the field.
The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction.
Dowsing rods and paranormal investigations.
Dowsing has been used for many centuries by many different cultures. The L-shaped rod (which is the type of dowsing rods we were provided with on the Extours investigation) is probably the most ancient of all dowsing instruments. The word ‘dowsing’ means to use a rod or pendulum to find something.
Both animate and inanimate objects have energy fields. Everything that exists in the universe is ultimately pure energy that gives off a vibrational frequency. That would include every particle, thought, emotion, word, object and experience. When you dowse for a target you tune into its frequency. The response from the rod means you are reflecting energy back to yourself for interpretation.
Finally, the Necrophonic app on the smartphone for the wireless headphones, this is just simply a version of a spirit box. A spirit box is usually a hand-held device used by paranormal investigators to communicate with the spirits or entities from the afterlife. They operate by scanning through radio frequencies in real-time, creating a stream of white noise and audio fragments, with the idea that entities can manipulate these frequencies to generate coherent responses to questions posed by the investigator.
So, back to the hour and a half event with Extours, once all the equipment had been handed out, the host started to talk to spirit, calling out questions and trying to get the K2 meters and dowsing rods to respond. Several of the group members took turns in wearing the headphones, and relaying the responses they heard, including one of our team members, Cherie, who will tell us a bit more about her experience in a short while.
Some of these responses seemed relevant and made sense, whilst others didn’t. Some of the group members dowsing rods also moved in response to some of the questions posed by our host. This continued as we set off deeper into the woods and down to Dead Woman’s Ditch.
Along the way, several of the group members dowsing rods moved, however, mine remained still the whole evening and I had no movement of them in response to any of the questions called out by our host.
After the hour and a half event with the group members, we all returned to the table in the small clearing, handed back all the equipment and once the host had packed it all away, made our way back to the car park for 1030pm.
We took a half hour break, whilst everyone else left, had a few refreshments and I started to get my own paranormal investigation kit ready for our own investigation. I decided that we would take with us two Dictaphones for something known as electronic voice phenomena, also known as EVP, a K2 meter, an EMF meter, a night vision head video camera, a night vision video camera and torches. We left the dowsing rods, dowsing pendant and multi spectrum video camera as were limited for space on the walk.
For those of you who don’t know, Electronic Voice Phenomena or EVP is a term for sounds on electronic recordings (such as a digital Dictaphone, of which we had two) that are interpreted as spirit voices. It’s a controversial topic in the fields of ghost hunting and parapsychology.
Unfortunately, despite checking all the equipment before leaving for the investigation, we seemed to experience some strange technical faults and a few technical issues. The first was noticeable with the night vision video camera. This video camera was fitted with a 4GB SD memory card, so should have had more than enough memory storage on it, however, this didn’t seem to be the case. Mike volunteered to be camera man and operate the night vision video camera.
Although I’ve read the instructions for it, it’s still a very new piece of kit and I’m still getting the hang of it. However, on three separate occasions Mike reported a message flashing up about the memory card being full and having to make more space. So I’d delete the video and we’d try to record again. It seemed to happen every 27 seconds. After the investigation and when I returned home to the office to check through everything, I looked through the night vision video camera and it had the three recording attempts still on it, despite the message saying it was full.
Regarding the two Dictaphones, I recorded two files with them over our own paranormal investigation, so there should have been two audio files on each Dictaphone. Unfortunately the first Dictaphone I checked mysteriously had no audio files on it, and the second Dictaphone I checked only had one 27 minutes audio file on it, covering the start of our own paranormal investigation. I listened through this audio file, but didn’t hear anything on it other than our own voices talking and asking questions.
So, guys, what are your thoughts on the paranormal investigation?
[PAUSE TELEPROMPTER FOR DISCUSSION] Please see video on YouTube channel (@clubmattproductions) for discussion.
And that brings us to the end of this segment, where we look back at the paranormal investigation we carried out.
And now, for some ghostly stories and paranormal experiences from the members of our team
[Insert Jingle}
[PAUSE TELEPROMPTER FOR DISCUSSION] Please see video on YouTube channel (@clubmattproductions) for discussion
And that brings us to the end of the show. A big thanks to our trainee Resident DJ, Mike Winter
[Applause]
Cherie Winter
[Applause]
And from me, your host and resident trainee amateur parapsychologist, Matt Lloyd
[Applause]
Is There Anybody Out There? Brought to you by ClubMatt Productions @ Badger Entertainments $ Events, www.clubmattproductions.co.uk or email us at clubmattproductions@mail.com
[ENDS]
Comentários