NEW scientific research which uses evidence from the world famous Enfield Poltergeist case has come a step closer to proving conclusively the existence of paranormal activity.

Research published in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research has concluded that audio recordings made during poltergeist activity at a house in Green Street in the late 1970s were unlikely to have been caused by normal human activity.

The recordings, made between 1977 and 1978, captured a variety of unexplained occurrences that plagued a mother and her children – including banging on walls and moving furniture.

During the year of disturbances, incidents of levitation and appearances of apparitions were also reported.

The events were witnessed by the family, along with local police officers, neighbours and journalists, receiving global media attention.

The recordings have for the first time been analysed in detail and the sounds of knocking on walls and furniture compared to the same sounds recreated under scientific conditions. The results showed the unexplained noises in Enfield did not produce normal sound wave patterns.

Guy Lyon Playfair – who spent two years investigating the case at the time, and went on to chronicle the events in a book, welcomed the research. He said: “This is absolutely the biggest step forward in the last 30 years, and it’s easily reproducible as all scientific evidence should be.”

The author and investigator added: “In doing this research, scientific order has been brought into a very crazy area – poltergeist activity. I don’t think it’s been done before.”

The research has been conducted by Dr Barrie Colvin who concludes that the noises recorded as unexplained incidents of “paranormal activity” can be clearly differentiated because of their abnormal acoustic properties – which are evident when they are analysed.

Dr Colvin said: “There are indications that the acoustic properties of the two classes of sounds are different and that this technique can be used to differentiate between normal and paranormal rapping sounds.”

Asked whether he believed such activity could ever return to the Enfield house, Mr Playfair said: “It would be extremely unlikely. When the family went away on holiday I stayed in the house on my own, very much hoping something would happen – but not a squeak. I tried knocking and shouting at the thing, but nothing.”

The last activity at the house was reported in September 1978. But in the 32 years that have followed interest in the case has continued to be intense – especially as extensive audio recordings exist of the activity, including recorded speech. The case has been the subject of numerous television documentaries.

Mr Playfair added: “It’s been accepted as one of the classic cases, there were so many people involved and I think it was the first or second case when the investigators were there right at the start and stayed right until the end.”

Source this is local london

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – Firefighters

 in Mobile are trying to come up with a logical explanation for a mystery at the central station downtown.

Something weird caught the attention of a firefighter passing through the museum room of the Central Station early Monday morning. That’s when Steve Huffman got a call.

“He said, ‘We’ve got a little unusual situation downtown that you might be interested in.’ And I said, ‘OK, what would that be?’” Huffman said.

The alarm system was lit up.

“The number four, which is a blue light, and the number ten, which is a red light,” he explained.

There’s just one little problem.

“The old alarm system, the Gamewell Alarm System, hasn’t been used in over 40 years, and far as we know it’s not connected any longer,” explained Huffman.

The batteries to power the panel were taken out 40 years ago, and the wires which ran through another panel on a different wall were ripped out years ago.

So where did the power for the light come from?

“Some say it’s the ghost of Laz Schwarz

 which was the city commissioner and mayor in the early 1900s,” Huffman explained.

Huffman said the stories of a ghost haunting the central fire station have been around as long as he has.

“In some cases, they actually thought they saw someone walking around the building. In other cases, things would move,” said Huffman.

Huffman admits firefighters are notorious jokesters, but he said one of the ghost stories came from someone who never joked.

“We were joking, saying he didn’t have a sense of humor, and when he said he saw a ghost, out of all the ones I’ve heard over the years, he’s the one I would believe,” added Huffman.

FOX10 News searched the archives at the Mobile Library for more information on Laz Schwarz. We didn’t find much. Schwarz served as mayor and commissioner of Mobile from 1911 to 1917. The fire station was dedicated in Schwarz’s honor in 1925, the same year he died.

“Some people seem to think that maybe his spirit

 still walks this building. Now, why he would be in this building, I don’t know,” Huffman said.

A lightning strike knocked out the computers at the central station Sunday. The strike may have something to do with the mysterious lights, but some folks like the ghost story better.

This was taken from WISHTV.com and is copyright by the articles owner

A LAD helped take his gran to hospital – and found himself facing a black-cloaked GHOST.

Jake Bestwick, 12, saw the spirit rise up from the floor, with its head hidden under a hood.

He said yesterday: “It came through the floor about 20cm from my face. It stood in front of me for a few seconds and then vanished.”

The sighting was the latest to hit Derby’s new Royal NHS Hospital after The Sun revealed it was haunted last year.

Five staff reported seeing a dark-clad spirit and bosses called in an exorcist to get rid of it.

Jake, of Langley Mill, Derbys, was with mum Gail, 45, taking gran Dorothy Campion to hospital.

He did not know of our story during the sighting. But he said: “I know what I saw was a ghost.”

Experts say the spectre could be the spirit of a Roman soldier.

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3097649/Jack-12-wards-off-ghost.html#ixzz0xBMcGAlU

Knebworth House

THE pen is mightier than the sword –

 an iconic proverb coined by Victorian novelist, poet and playwright Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839

It’s a phrase which makes regular appearances to this very day; just like its creator, the ghost of whom is said to haunt the gothic Times Territory stately home where he once lived.

Lord David Cobbold, the great-great-grandson of Bulwer-Lytton, made the revelation about Knebworth House on the BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs, which was broadcast on Sunday.

The 73-year-old told how he hears the whispers

 of his ancestor and other spectres on the estate, which has been home to the Lytton family since 1490.

“I hear them and feel their presence but my wife sees them,” he said.

Lord Cobbold, who established Knebworth’s tradition of hosting rock concerts back in the 1970s, added: “It’s the spirit of the house.

“You just feel that this is a rather special place to be.”

Born in London in May 1803, Edward Bulwer-Lytton attended Cambridge University before becoming a Member of Parliament and a prolific novelist.

His many popular books include The Caxtons and The Last Days of Pompeii.

He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866 and died at Torquay, in Devon, in 1873.

This was taken from Welwyn Hatfield Times 24 and is copyright by the articles owner

In Chapel Hill folks still talk about the legend of Peter Dromgoole. Peter Dromgoole, the University of North Carolina student who was killed in a duel in 1832. Many students have reported seeing Dromgoole’s ghost and the ghost of his girlfriend at Gimghoul Castle where the young man’s remains are supposedly buried under a blood-stained rock.

But there is another well-known spirit supposedly haunting a section of beautiful and historic Chapel Hill.

Built in the 1840s, the Horace Williams House is located in the college town’s historic district. It is within walking distance of the University of North Carolina and the downtown section. The historic home is owned by the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill and is open to the public, according to a Web site.

Originally built as a simple farmhouse, the residence went through several owners and renovations until it was purchased by Horace Williams in 1897. Williams was the chairman of UNC’s Philosophy Department and was much beloved by his students. One of them was the future author Thomas Wolfe. In his novel “You Can’t Go Home Again” Thomas Wolfe wrote this about his Favorite Philosophy Professor “He was a great teacher, and what he did for us, and for others before us for fifty years, was not to give us his ‘philosophy’. . . but to communicate to us his alertness, his originality, his power to think.” Sen. Sam Ervin was another one of his students, according to a Web site.

When he died in 1940, Williams bequeathed the house and his property to the University of North Carolina . In the 1970s, it became the home of the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill.

Many folks in Chapel Hill believe that the good professor never really left. They report that his ghost moves items around in the house as he sees fit. One former occupant of the place reported that as a child, she noticed many strange happenings in the old house. This included fire utensils being moved from one side of the fireplace to the other. Her sister supposedly had several conversations with Horace Williams’ ghost. The caretaker of the house has stated that a rocking chair sometimes rocks by itself and the toilets have flushed by themselves on some occasions, according to a Web site.

For us Tar Heel fans, all of this should come as no surprise. Once you’ve spent time in Chapel Hill, it is very hard to leave it. That is why we call it “the Southern part of heaven.”

This was taken from The McDowell News and is copyright by the articles owner

The New Inn in Gloucester is supposedly haunted

It’s claimed that a series of unexplained happenings

have occurred at The New Inn in the space of a week, including the sound of ghostly footsteps, rattling doors and even a pint of beer mysteriously lifting itself off a table and on to the floor.

The building in Northgate Street is a bar and hotel, and dates back to the 14th Century.

It was originally built to house pilgrims visiting the shrine of King Edward II at nearby Gloucester Cathedral, and is described as having the finest example of a medieval gallery in Britain.

Lyn Cinderey from the Gloucester Active Paranormal Society (GAPS) was in the bar at the time of the ‘moving pint’ incident, taking part in a pub quiz.

“The quiz night was absolutely amazing,” she said.

“There were a few people in the bar, and four people saw this glass – a full pint – just lift up and fall on the floor. The glass didn’t even break.

The rest of us looked around and heard the thud. We just couldn’t believe it. It was right there in the middle of the quiz.

“I’ve been investigating this [reputedly haunted] building for a long time and I’ve never known it so active.

“Activity has risen

since 1 February when new managers, Mark and Samantha, arrived. Their daughter has been talking to a young girl – there is reputedly a young spirit girl there.”

Lyn claims other strange happenings have happened recently.

“One of the bar staff has heard footsteps in the cellar when he’s been clearing up with nobody else there, and staff have also heard the exit door rattle in the restaurant.

“Another of the bar staff claims that when he’s been clearing up he’s felt a cold spot and he’s been chilled all over. It’s absolutely fantastic,” said Lyn.

On another occasion the pub managers’ pet has even been spooked.

“Samantha’s dog was eating his food in his bowl the other night and the bowl just turned itself over.

“My friend also stayed there and she was watching TV when it suddenly went off.

“She went to look and the plug was half way out of the socket and yet it was firmly in before.”

There have also been reports of keys going missing.

Lyn Cinderey is now planning to do an overnight investigation, with a team of people from GAPS.

They will carry out temperature readings, use dictaphones to do EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena) recordings, record anything that might be there with camcorders, and take pictures.

“We’ll hopefully get to the bottom of what exactly is going on,” said Lyn.

This was taken from BBC Gloucestershire and is copyright by the articles owner

Steve Genier sat in a wooden chair

 at the parlour tea table, steps away from where nearly 80 years ago Henry Breckon’s body lay prepped for burial.

The air was still and hot. The house was silent, the room dark. Genier waited, alone, for something to happen.

Then he felt it. A tug — an unmistakable playful pull — on his left shoulder.

He jumped out of his chair and looked around. The room was empty.

His mind calculated. “Was it the wind? Maybe I moved slightly,” he thought.

“But none of it made sense,” he says. “Because I was just sitting there, not moving at all.”

No one knows who or what haunts Spruce Lane Farmhouse,

 a sprawling Victorian home nestled in a thick of century-old maple trees in Oakville’s Bronte Provincial Park. But that’s where Genier comes in. He’s investigating the house’s haunted status with his team at the Southern Ontario Paranormal Society.

Genier is one of a slew of investigators the park has brought in over the past year to collect evidence of paranormal activity for their summer ghost tour. The television show Ghost Trackers even recorded an episode at the farm.

Built in 1899, the Spruce Lane Farmhouse was home to the Breckon family — Henry, his wife Margaret, and their children Christine, Alice and Gordon — until the 1950s.

Some think the haunting presence is Henry, who died in 1931. Nothing is known about his death except that his body was laid out in the front parlour for a days-long wake.

But those who know the house best believe it’s haunted

 by a friendly presence; perhaps, Andrew Cirtwill suggests, the energy left behind by guests who lived at the farmhouse or visited when it was rented throughout the 50s and 60s.

“I feel safer here than most places,” says Cirtwill, who is costumed in a fake mustache and full Victorian suit he made himself.

Cirtwill is the park’s natural heritage education leader and summer ghost-tour guide. As he leads Star reporters through the house, he points out rooms and items of ghostly interest.

There’s the smoking room door people say opens and closes on its own. Some visitors, on separate occasions, have felt like a servant was following them around. Whispered words, footsteps and children’s laughter has been heard in various parts of the house.

Many people say they’ve felt an energy or presence they just can’t explain.

Cirtwill, 28, remembers experiencing an overwhelming sense of guilt when he returned to the house one day after having taken apart the dining room table to prepare for a special event.

“It was like someone or something was really mad,” he says. “Once the table was back together and looking like before, it was almost like it was appreciated.”

Since then, Cirtwill says he talks to the house. He says hello when he enters and quietly lets the house know if he’s doing anything unusual.

“I came in today and said ‘look pretty, because we’re going to have some pictures taken,’” Cirtwill says, laughing.

His fellow tour guides — Victoria Cirtwill, his wife, and Cathy Entwistle —grin and nod in agreement. They speak to the house, too.

Non-believers might scowl at such behaviour. And many would claim Genier’s shoulder-tug story is the result of an overactive imagination.

But Genier prides himself on being a skeptic because he says it’s a job requirement in the ghost-hunting business.

“I think it’s healthy to be skeptical because if you’re not you’ll think everything is a ghost,” he says.

“Ninety per cent of claims that people have are easily explainable,” he says.

Genier, 41, works for an independent film company when he’s not tracking ghosts. When he’s called to investigate a house he learns everything he can about the stories attached to it and then visits the house to conduct an investigation. His team observes, records video and tries to collect Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) — recordings of voices and sounds that can’t usually be heard by the human hear.

Believers say EVP is how spirits try to communicate with us.

 Non-believers say it’s just a trick of the mind or electronic interference.

At the Spruce Lane farm, Genier’s team collected EVPs of what they say sounds like children laughing and people murmuring and speaking — those recordings will be played throughout the park’s summer ghost tours.

Genier says Spruce Lane was a landmark in his ghost career. He had never been physically touched during an investigation before. Genier isn’t saying there is no explanation for it — he’s just saying he doesn’t have one.

“You sit there and you go to yourself what could that be?” he says. “It just makes you think: Is there something going on?

“And that’s what I want to know.”

This was taken from thestar.com and is copyright by the articles owner

A celebrity psychic has told Big Brother bosses

 that recent mysterious happenings in the reality house have been caused by the ghost of Jade Goody, says a report.

Medium Sara Etienne told Channel 4 bosses that she believes that the spirit of the BB3 star has returned to the set of the reality show.

The 50-year-old has offered her services to help to exorcise Jade’s ghost, says the Daily Star.

Sara told the newspaper that she believes that Jade’s spirit has returned to “help” the housemates on the last ever series.

Etienne is reported as saying: “I think Jade is there not to cause trouble but to help people.

“It’s very nurturing, almost motherly. I think Jade realises fame is not all it’s cracked up to be and wants to warn others.

“That’s why things are going wrong.

“It’s a message. I feel she’s saying these people can do something with their lives without having to be on TV.”

This was taken from STV and is copyright by the articles owner

Katrina Pierce was writing the daily specials

on her menu board as she had done every day since Feb. 19 when a man behind her whispered, “What are you doing?”

Pierce turned around. No one was there.

She dropped the marker and ran into the back kitchen.

It wasn’t the first instance in her restaurant that she can’t quite explain, so she called in the professionals at Ghost Hunters Inc., a group of Pennsylvania residents who investigate paranormal activity.

A team of eight Ghost Hunters investigators will spend Saturday night attempting to contact the spirits Pierce believes are present throughout her restaurant.

Pierce bought the Riverfront Bar and Lounge at 338 S. Front St. in Wrightsville in
November 2008. She gutted the top two floors and remodeled the first floor where the bar is. Since then, she’s noticed strange things happening.

“Right before we opened, I came in to make sure the fridges were conditioned,” she said. “I walked into the kitchen and heard loud, organ music coming from the bar. I looked out in the bar and it stopped.”

She has also heard bathroom stall doors whipping open

and shut, but stop when she walks into the bathroom. And then there’s the walking and mumbling the barmaids have told her about — sometimes when the bar’s empty.

“I do believe,” Pierce said. “I don’t know if I’d call them ghosts, but I believe there’s something out there.”

Abel brothers: Pierce, a real estate agent for 17 years, was curious about the building’s history. She collected anything she could find to give her a glimpse into the past. Neighbors from the block had given her pictures of the building, one of which she hung out in the bar area.

The picture is from sometime between 1890 and 1920, Pierce guessed. It’s of some men standing in front of the bar, then called Abel Brothers Storefront.

Pierce pulled paperwork from York County and discovered the Abel brothers — Samuel, Milton and Albert — owned the building and sold beer, ice cream and milk. In 1937, they petitioned to sell beer, sandwiches and light lunches.

The picture of the brothers, secured by a picture hanger, constantly falls,

Pierce said. But it doesn’t fall to the floor and break. It falls straight down, onto a ledge.

Allen Phillips, the founder and lead investigator of Ghost Hunters Inc., examined the picture and the hook. He said it’s impossible for the picture to fall the way it does without breaking.

“Someone has to physically pick it up and place it on the ledge,” he said. “We’re thinking (it’s the Abel Brothers).”

Hunting: Phillips started the ghost hunting service in 1974 with his brother and best friend. To this day, it’s still just a hobby. The investigators all have full-time jobs and don’t charge a fee to their clients.

“We want to get evidence that there is life beyond the grave

 and to debunk any other kinds of sounds,” Phillips said. “We do scientific research in a paranormal world.”

The group did a preliminary investigation Wednesday night and said they found heavy activity throughout the building. Investigator Scott Wise said he could immediately feel a presence as he walked up to the second floor.

“I just felt, like a heaviness, then it lifted up,” he said. “It’s all over.”

Saturday, the group will split up into teams of two on each floor. They will use tools to attempt to contact the spirits during the four-hour investigation. An electronic voice phenomenon tool will record a spirit’s response to the investigators’ questions. The recorder can replay any noise.

The electromagnetic field detector will indicate if there is a spirit in the room. On a scale of 0.1 to 50, 50 indicating the most activity, the investigators said the Riverfront Bar and Lounge exceeded the scale during their preliminary investigation Wednesday.

“I kept it to myself until the barmaids said they were hearing things,” Pierce said. “I just want to know I’m not hearing things.”

Pierce will be part of the investigation Saturday. She said she doesn’t want skeptics to write her off as crazy and encourages people to experience what she has.

“They have to come see for themselves I guess,” Pierce said. “Just come here and hang out.”

This was taken from yorkdispatch.com and is copyright by the articles owner

The shadowy woman has now shown up in the photographs of two tourists following visits to Mary King’s Close.

Staff at one of Edinburgh’s spookiest tourist attractions have been left mystified after a ghostly figure showed up in the photographs of two separate tourists.

Bosses at Mary King’s Close say the blond haired woman who appeared in images from two different tours was definitely not a customer.

Both photos appear to show one person more than expected and staff believe that on close inspection, the ghostly figure appears to be the same woman.

Staff were first alerted to their unexpected visitor last October, when a member of the public queried their souvenir photograph. A few weeks later, the same thing happened with a different tourist, and staff say they have been trying to figure out what is going on ever since.

They have now introduced later night tours for the month of August in a bid to get to the bottom of the mystery. And they have asked anyone who sees a strange apparition in their pictures to allow them to be examined.

Lisa Robshaw, spokesperson for The Real Mary King’s Close, said: “We hope that by extending the hours of opening we can get to the bottom of this mystery. 

“We’ve long been associated with supernatural and unexplained stories.

We’ve had sightings of dark shadowy figures who lurk in the myriad of passageways, rooms and corners of the Closes, and reports of lots of strange noises – these images seem to give us even more evidence.

“By running tours late in to the night with the last one finishing at midnight, we hope that this might make the ghostly image reappear. “

Ms Robshaw insisted the images had not been doctored by staff, adding: “We have spent a long time studying these photographs and cannot come to a satisfactory conclusion.  In both these images there appears to be a blurry ghostly image of a blond haired lady which we cannot explain, and we hope that by making the images public that someone might be able to help.

“If there are people in the images who can explain who the lady is we would love to hear from them.  We’ve tested the static camera that we use and it appears to be working normally so we really do not have an explanation.  We just want to try and understand what has happened.”

This was taken from STV and is copyright by the articles owner