<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">I was trawling the Internet yesterday looking for something interesting when I stumbled on a site of supposed images of ghosts caught on film. Some of them were pretty good; while others looked as though they were little mini movies made out of devilment by people with nothing better to do. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyway, it got me thinking how there are no good ghost stories anymore. When I was a young boy it seemed everyone had a ghost story to tell. I would listen to the teller with icy fingers running down my spine and a look of awe on my face. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Next door to my parents was haunted for a while. An old lady &ndash; Mrs Rutter I think her name was &ndash; lived there alone. I remember thinking how ancient she looked, but then, when you&rsquo;re a young boy growing up anyone over the age of 30 seems ancient. My parents would listen out for her every night. When they heard the sound of the TV being switched off and the scraping of the coal fire they knew she was okay.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">One day, Mrs Rutter had a fall and was taken to hospital. She didn&rsquo;t return and the house remained empty for about ten years. So when my parents continued to hear the sound of the TV being switched off and the coal fire being poked out you can imagine what they must have been thinking. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Our neighbours would often say how they saw an old lady looking out her front bedroom window and lights would flash through the mucked up curtains adding to the idea the house was indeed haunted. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">You might be thinking it was all just a trick of light, or an over active imagination fuelled by the fact that the garden was over run with weeds and the paint was faded and flaky and that the house did actually look haunted &ndash; at least, to me and my sisters it did, anyway. But, about three years after she died, her two daughters also died and bizarrely, the sightings and noises stopped. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">So, was Mrs Rutter lonely and waiting for her daughters to join her in the afterlife, or was it indeed our imagination playing tricks on us. I like to think she was waiting for her daughters and that once they joined her she was able to find piece and rest internally ever after.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></p>

<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Ok, so it looks as though my questions and answers still haven&rsquo;t gone on the forum for October&rsquo;s WOM. But I still have my piece. Here it is. I had to hold it back because it only took pace on Friday night. It&rsquo;s not what I wanted&nbsp;being so close to&nbsp;Halloween. I&rsquo;m gutted, really. If I&rsquo;d known how disappointing things would be, I would have worked on something else. But hey, who knew? </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">&nbsp;</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">&lsquo;Frightnights&rsquo; - With Halloween fast approaching, it sounded almost too good to be true. Spend a night in a haunted location. Do a walk around with a trained Medium. Learn to use our ghost busting equipment using EMF detectors and hot/cold spot locators. Take part in glass moving and table tipping. Witness first hand the horrors of Nottingham&rsquo;s Halls of Justice . . . if you dare!!</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Well I dared. My wife, my sister and my best friend dared too. Was it scary? No, it was not. Did we witness any ghostly apparitions? No, we did not. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">So, what did we find out on our &lsquo;haunted&rsquo; stay at what history suggests is one of the most brutal places I have ever visited? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>Well, if ever there was a place likely to be haunted, this would be it. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">And to be fair it may well be haunted, but there is a major problem with the Frightnight &ndash; I use the term lightly &ndash; experience. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">There are just too many people - some of whom aren&rsquo;t serious anyway - running about, giggling nervously, while flashing their torches around, dampening any scary atmosphere that may be there. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">The first hour was spent listening to our less than enthusiastic &lsquo;paranormal investigator&rsquo;, as she went into the Hall&rsquo;s murky past, even telling us where all the &lsquo;ghostly hauntings&rsquo; supposedly take place. Well, what&rsquo;s the point in that? Surely if we are investigating shouldn&rsquo;t be finding our own ghosts then talking to our paranormal investigator about them afterwards.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Then it was upstairs for a cuppa, which, for some bizarre reason, lasted about forty minutes. Most of the other guest sat down and began munching on a picnic, much to our amazement and annoyance, while me and my gang were desperate to get on. After the tea was cleared away and the other guests had wiped the sides of their mouths with a napkin and cleaned the chicken grease off their fingers, we were introduced to our Medium for the night, Dan. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Well, he wasn&rsquo;t a Medium of any kind. He was a fat middle aged man who picked up on none of the spirits our paranormal investigator had already told us about. It was so infuriating listening to him prattle on. In the hour long . . . hell, let&rsquo;s call it the Dan show, any chance we had left of believing the place was actually haunted, or at least that we might actually see a ghost tonight, had all but dissipated into the ether.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">The trouble with Mediums is they are subjective. They are telling us things we can&rsquo;t possibly know and we have no way of finding out if they are telling us the truth. We have to believe them, too believe they are being honest with us. After all, how can we know or feel what they are experiencing? So, did I believe our Dan? Well, I&rsquo;ve been to see Derek Achora and he was a damn sight more convincing. No, I did not believe him. I just find it difficult to allow myself to trust them. They would have to give me something very personal, something only I know about, or know they couldn&rsquo;t possibly know about, if I am ever to believe them.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">By two o&rsquo;clock we were fed up. We still had another four hours to go. We wanted desperately to go off on our own, to get away from the silliness, to experience the place for ourselves. Sure, there were a couple of good experiments. One of them even involved Dan. He whipped us all up into what I can only suppose was a trance of some kind, by asking us to hum. Then he asked the spirit world to push us to our knees. I have to admit, I buckled. After about fifteen minutes, I couldn&rsquo;t keep my legs straight any longer. I was down in the dirt along with most of the other guests. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Was it the spirits? No, I don&rsquo;t believe for a minute that it was. I believe, through chanting, we were put in a meditative state and his power of persuasion, his voice, put us on the floor. It was a clever experiment and quite enjoyable, if not a little uncomfortable on the legs. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">The night ended with a mass s&eacute;ance in the cave. We were told to form a circle and link hands. Then we had to chant feverishly again in the hopes of bringing the spirit world forward. By that time, the only spirit I wanted was a tot of whisky to warm my freezing body and a comfy bed. As the chanting reached fever pitch, Dan began to call for the spirits. He wanted them to push us towards him. One of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span>the &lsquo;truth seekers&rsquo; got so childishly caught up in it all she ended up punching my wife in the mouth. It wasn&rsquo;t on purpose, hell, it was pitch black in there. But there was no apology, only a telling off for Helen for swearing too loudly. Helen, meanwhile, was in tears nursing a sore mouth. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">So, the end of the vigil arrived. We were taken back to the tearoom and debriefed about the events that had &lsquo;taken place.&rsquo; According to our experts, the night was a success. They were in jovial mood in fact. Well, err guys, it wasn&rsquo;t a success, but thanks for taking our money, anyway.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Was it a complete waste of time? Have I stopped believing in the paranormal?</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">I&rsquo;ve thought about this a lot since we got home. The answer to the first question. No it wasn&rsquo;t a complete waste of time. I got to spend the night with my three best mates, and we proved once again that we have the stomach for a ghost hunt and that we can be rational about what we are seeing. I think that&rsquo;s important, being rational. It&rsquo;s just a pity that all I can focus on at the moment is the negatives rather than what is a wonderful building with an incredibly gory and interesting history.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Calibri;">Am I still a believer? Well, in the words of Fox Mulder, &lsquo;the evidence to suggest that ghosts exist far out weighs the evidence to suggest they do not.&rsquo; Ok, say he was referring to UFO&rsquo;s, but I think it fits with spirits too. </span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>