SPECTRAL INCURSIONS

Those that scorn the idea that spooks or ghosts prowl and shimmer throughout the world, do so because so far nobody has caught a ghost `in a bottle`. Because they are skeptical by habbit, or because they resist the notion that death may not be the final experience for us humans.

For many the word `ghost` conjures up an anonymous white-robed figure, a spirit that has come back from the grave to haunt the living. But in the literature of Ghostdom,` spectral beings come in a variety of forms and shapes, and some never put in an appearance at all! although they make their presence felt. Ghosts also differ in behaviour- they may be purposeful, playful, angelic or even demonic. Miracles are an example of intervention by angelic or enlightened powers, while most poltergeist episodes are held to be demonic, or a manifestation of untaimed telekinetic abilities.

In the psychological view of the phenomenom, ghosts reveal a spectrum of powerful, but not yet understood capacities of the human mind. In these terms some ghosts are the product of telepathic powers, as when a relative appears to another at the time of death. Poltergeist phenomena suggest unwitting and uncontrolled psychokinetic abilities. And some– the appearence of phantom doubles– suggests that out-of-body experiences can sometimes be manifest to others.

THE ANNE WALKER STORY.

Late one night in the early 20th century a miller, James Graeme, of County Durham in the North East of England where I live, suddenly found himself in the company of a young woman. He naturally asked if she was alright and then in shock, he noticed that she was covered in blood all over her hair, and had five gaping wounds in her head. She told Graeme that her name was Anne Walker and that she had been murdered, with a pickaxe, by someone called Mark Sharp who was acting on the instructions of another man who was also named Walker, by whom she was pregnant. She made it very clear to Graeme that unless he gave this information to the police, she would continue to return to him.

Refusing to believe what he had experienced, Graeme did nothing. But again the apparition appeared and twice more pleaded with him to help her seek justice for her murdered baby and herself. He finally worked up the courage and went to his local police station and spoke to a friend about what had been happening, praying that he would be taken seriously. A pit that the ghost identified as where her body was, was examined and her body was found half burried. Sharp and Walker were later arrested, tried and sentenced to hang. She appeared one more time to Graeme, but this time she was whole and beautiful again, she just smiled and was gone. He never had another experience like that again!

GHOST!

In he wanders in the deep dark night

Scaring the neighbours, oh what a fright!

He likes to make a noise

But he doesn`t want to be seen

But they can tell when he`s there!

Because he always causes a scene.

He has a cat like step

That cannot be heard.

A lightness of touch

Like the smallest of bird.

He opens doors with his ghostly touch

And he turns off the lights! then laughs so much.

He likes to scare folk, because it`s so funny to see

But he`ll never be seen by you or me.

G xx

nanny.gina.r@gmail.com