British Ghosts

EXPLAINING LIFE’S MYSTERIES

By Stephen Ellis

News: The Durham Journal
An investigation is to be carried out into ghostly goings on at a community centre. The North East-based Esoteric Paranormal Investigations team will visit the Mainsforth & District Community Centre in Ferryhill, County Durham. The team said that incidents at the centre have included: : Unexplained temperature fluctuations: Spectacular light anomalies on photographs, videos and seen by the naked eye: Unexplained strange noises – bumps, groans and voices: Strange smells which come and go: Doors opening and chairs folding of their own accord: Tables which move around the room: The centre was built as a miners’ welfare hall in 1927. Anne Piper, who lives in Gateshead and is coordinator of the investigations team, said: “It is an unusual location. “When it comes to paranormal activity, people don’t think of buildings like that.”

BRITISH GHOSTS

While Great Britain does not have any exclusivity on ghosts, Great Britain does lay claim to having more ghosts (or reports of ghosts) per square foot than anyplace else in the world. England even offers tours of haunted castles.

The last time I was in England (being the curious cat that I am), I took one of the tours of haunted castles. We were taken to several castles of varying ages where we did hear strange sounds such as chains clanging and doors opening and closing. In one case I heard voices apparently coming out of nowhere. But, being a realist, I am well aware that almost invisible microphones and speakers can be hidden away…especially in walls made out of mortared stone, and I was duly unimpressed.

Except for one thing…

We were shown into what used to be a bed chamber (a master bedroom in our parlance), and we were told to stick our hand over a certain spot near the middle of the room. It’s what our guide called a “cold spot”. The guide said that many of the haunted castles have them.

The spot was round and about six inches in diameter…and it was cold! The temperature inside the room was about 70-degrees Fahrenheit (it was during the summer), but as my hand entered spot, the temperature in the spot was no more than 30 degrees Fahrenheit. As my hand passed through it, the temperature returned to normal. Again and again, I passed my hand through the cold spot. I tried leaving my hand in the cold spot, but I couldn’t do so for very long as it was just too cold and it was starting to freeze my hand and wrist. I bent down to the floor and it was exactly the same thing. I stood on a couple of stone blocks and reached up to the ceiling. The same thing. Although I had no tools to precisely measure the diameter of the spot, it appeared to be the same size and shape at the ceiling as it was on the floor.

It was a very puzzling thing: If were just a normal inlet of cold air, it would be expected to spread out into the rest of the room. It would be expected to expand as it got higher up towards the ceiling. But it remained in the narrow cylinder from floor to ceiling.

I examined the floor and the ceiling, and there were no significant cracks or holes through which cold air could come. More important, there was no wind or movement of the air inside the cold spot, so I was absolutely certain nothing was blowing up or down. I walked through the cold spot several times and it was just as if I was walking through a transparent cylinder of ice.

Naturally, I asked the guide to explain it. His response was classic: "You've got to expect things like this. This is a haunted castle!"

I gave this cold spot a lot of thought on my way back to London. There was no rational, reasonable or scientific explanation for it, so I decided to try and seek some explanation that was not rational. The only thing I could come up with was the word “portal”.

If you believe in different dimensions, such as I do, the term “portal” refers to a crack or small opening in that mysterious wall or fabric that separates dimensions. An entryway to another dimension that our limited five senses can't perceive. How it can be used or applied is a totally different matter, but I do believe it is possible that I was touching a small opening to another dimension. Who or what uses that entryway or if it can be used by mortal people goes beyond my limited abilities of analysis and clear thinking. But I was experiencing a physical impossibility: Every single law of physics is violated...for a cylinder of air, approximately six inches in diameter unchanged from floor to ceiling...to be forty degrees colder than anything around it. Interestingly, the cold stayed within that cylinder and did not drop the temperature in the rest of the room.

For those people who do not believe in or accept paranormal possibilities, I strongly recommend a haunted castle tour in England.

As I said, nobody asked me.