He also exhibited an interest in archaeology and coin collecting but really he concentrated on an altogether different subject and one that would soon see his becoming known as the man to call if paranormal phenomena were known at a location. During the roaring twenties communications and technologies were advancing at a great pace. Into these times local gossip about certain haunted locations or the scientific assessment of notable psychics by Harry Price really comes together and the results were nationwide news.

Borley Rectory

Anyone who knows their accounts of famous hauntings has heard of Borley Rectory, Price’s second landmark after his being recognised as an international psychic researcher. It was during this investigation that his condition that precluded his active service returns to trouble him again. The case is well documented and is perhaps singularly important not because of the nature of the phenomena but because it brought an otherwise almost taboo subject into the public eye and because of the investigative manner in which it was handled.

Harry Price can in part be considered to have brought the study of the metaphysical into the modern world as a well recognised, respected subject that could have scientific principles applied to it. Certainly a ghost hunter or paranormal investigator by the general title, but a pioneer for sure..

You’re especially going to need that last quality by the bucketfull because you are about to go fishing and as any fisherman will tell you may well wait along time before you get a bite! I am assuming that your reading this article because you really do want to get out there actually hunting rather than reading about various ghostly accounts or watching another episode of Most Haunted.

Well if this is the case then despite the fact that I co-own Paranormal Nights. I’m going to say your best bet is to source a local paranormal research group in your area. But do your homework beforehand and by that I mean check out those clubs, societies or groups. Most credible organisations will have investigated many locations and will have investigations lined up that you may be interested in. Not only this but it is worth pointing out that some have been in existence for a great deal of time and many were there before the public events companies. Some organisations even have their own libraries and can even offer various courses and because of their long term existence and reputation would be able to investigate uniquely personal occurences based on established trust. Now I’ve also pointed you, the wanna-be ghost hunter in this direction because within such an group you could become an integral member and therefore be well placed to add to the accumulation of accredited evidence on the phenomena. It is worth pointing out that being familiar with or adept at certain things may help you specialise your role in an organisation, an example might be being a reasonable photographer or by being adept at video editing etc. But don’t despair if you don’t see your talents as being applicable, your role may only truly be realised once your in the thick of it! Who knows? You may come to shine through as a particularly good sensitive, even medium, but more on that later..

There is of course the other option of participating in a public ghost hunt offered by various companies aound the UK. These are going to give you a brief insight into ghost hunting but the companies running these do tend to have much more prestigious, dare we say it active locations? If only because they can cover the location costs involved. They will supply you with the equipment, teach you the basics and cover all the other details for you so you can just turn up and be part of the event. It should be pointed out that because the initial group size will be bigger you may feel safer, but equally so the actual party size for the vigils will be smaller so that comforting feeling won’t last!

Ok so I’ve given you two possible starters but there is another. Meet up with a like minded person and begin there! I ought to stress the need to be in pairs as a minimum though, never go it alone! You will also need to act primarily as recorders to begin with and limit your initial interactions, especially avoiding employing any spiritual contact apparatus! There is also the obvious everyday saftey factors involved in being in dark situations and should you for example intend to investigate anywhere remote then of course let others know your whereabouts.  If you do choose this route then you are going to need to have a good deal of the first quality I mentioned as well – nerve.

Remember though at this point I’m just getting you onto the starting blocks, whatever route you take! I must point out that if you fancy the last option your going to have to do alot more of the prep work, but hey that’s part of the fun! You’ll also have to have to equip yourselves with gear just as you would have to if you joined a paranormal research group and seek out for yourselves somewhere active to investigate.
In the next installment I’ll cover prep work and start getting on to the equipment you’ll need as well as the equipment you might like.

As we spread ourselves evermore we extinguish these unfamiliar abodes and maybe take some comfort in our turning them into habitable well-lit areas with maybe a street or two named after the woods that once stood there.
No doubt being in such places does take us out of our comfort zone and its easy to get lost in such places if they are sufficiently large. But there is maybe a primeval fear that comes to the fore in dark woods as they once were dangerous places and yes some may still warrant a little caution today to the person alone amongst the trees.
Let’s tackle the physical side first and then get onto the ’odd’ after. The seclusion of such places is perfect for what now seems to be an accepted number of beasts that have retreated to the forests after escaping captivity, wild boars roam certain forests and big cats may reside in many others.

Right the odd side of matters is where our natural caution gets prompted to go on to an outright fear of entering the woods. Of course there’s always going to be certain ghostly tales associated with certain woods. Take nearby to one of venues – Guy’s Cliffe House and Blacklow Woods. Here Piers Gaveston, favourite of King Edward II was taken in the 14th Century by his nemesis the Earl of Warwick to be beheaded and his ghostly procession is said to be seen making its way through the woods to the execution site. Indeed a fellow ghost hunter and his friend who we know captured something odd on investigating those very woods one night a few years back.
Here’s a sample of what was in the darkness after the picture was lightened.

Then in those very same woods we noticed some curious creations on two different occasions. What appeared to be coned huts made of branches were evident along with many broken branches that were twisted into one another. The work of kids and a little whirlwind perhaps?

At first we thought this likely but after a later visit the same things were evident but on a much larger scale, infact way beyond what kids might do to make dens and this time round there were also runic like markings on paper staked into the ground at certain places. Could it be that these were harmless Wiccan or Druidic practices or could they be a little darker in their nature?
Many religions believe trees to be sacred and that natural energy or ‘Chi’ is especially strong under the trees of early morning. Perhaps any spirits associated with such areas can harness this super battery of energy as seems to be the case in the footage contained in the youtube link at the foot of this article.

So if your feeling brave you might want to try a little investigating on the paranormal side in the woods near you. But don’t go alone or you may find that the security of the modern world is gone in the snap of the branch your about to step on..

There are a vast number of unexplained phenomena within the world of the Paranormal, which over the course of the next few months I will touch on, but first time to go back to basics.

Where did it all begin?

Well Spiritualism is a religion that began in the United States of America in New York, back in the 1840’s. Spiritualists often set March 31, 1848, as the beginning of their movement. On that date Kate and Margaret Fox of Hydesville, New York reported that they had made contact with the spirit of a murdered peddler. What made this an extraordinary event was that the spirit communicated through rapping noises audible to onlookers. The evidence of the senses appealed to practically minded Americans and the Fox sisters became a sensation!

This new religion was extremely popular and it mainly seemed to be popular with the middle to upper classes, in particular women!

In the years following that label ‘sensation’ greeted the Fox sisters at demonstrations of the varying forms of mediumship such as séances and automatic writing. These proved also to be profitable and soon became popular forms of entertainment and spiritual catharsis. The Foxes were to earn a living this way, others would soon follow their lead and continue to do so.

Over the years there have been many mediums, some fake of course but most genuine! I myself have witnessed various mediums undertake different ways of trying to communicate with spirits, some work some don’t, but nonetheless we love it. It is so intriguing to see if loved ones or others really are still here with us and of course we love testing mediums!

In this day and age when other religions are fading away people are still turning to Spiritualism. Just a thought… but perhaps because it attempts to shed light on what’s beyond death in a re-assuring and non-doctrine like way?

Like so many of the more convincing ghost photos it was captured on a shot that was not intentionally designed to capture anything odd at the time. We left the time and date stamp on and at this point we had not begun the vigils on our investigation of Woodchester Mansion on the 12th of April 2008.

The figure at the fire was caught when guest Shaun McCloughlin decided to take a memento photo of his partner Amy May Berry at the venue. Obviously there were people milling about the room and they were going to be caught in the image however this extra guest certainly wasn’t accounted for!

Now we admit that something odd is going on in the photo in general, a curiuos doubling effect is evident even on the orbs streaming upwards. However if some technical error has caused this doubling effect then we believed that this effect should have applied to the figure by the fire too? But take note – that figure has a clearly defined edge!

We have speculated as to what the figure looked like on our description in the gallery and considering what came to light we were pretty close!

This is a genuine digital image and the mysterious figure was shown to us straightaway. We never know what results we or our guests will get at a supposedly haunted property but if we eventually arrive at possibly paranormal results like this then the hunt’s very worthwhile!

From this position the rear of the courtyard is visible and we continued our chatting. Out of the corner of this authors’ eye I spied a figure walking alongside the low cliff of the courtyard towards the coach house. I barely took much notice of this figure with its slumped shoulders and dreary style of walking. We were admittedly all a bit fuzzy at this time of the morning, who isn’t after a long evening? Even though this figure best resembled Ian of our staff I casually enquired as to who this was. The consensus was that it was Ian so I said ‘where’s he going?’ as I though he’d join us. It was assumed that he was going to check the coach house before our locking of this area. Of course our attention, albeit not fully was now on this figure. In dawns light and from the angle the figure was at we could not see the face and within a few steps we were soon looking at the back of this person who we thought was Ian. Something wasn’t ringing right to me but I failed to pick up on this and in our account of this several others thought likewise. On reflection the hair of this figure was different to that of Ian’s but more so the clothes. This man wore dark navy trousers and a jacket to match but not a smart jacket more like a loose work jacket. I automatically assumed that Ian had put on another jacket besides that of his black Paranormal Nights fleece.

Guy of our team then preceded up into the coach house to help Ian. Being that the coach house is barely a stones throw away Guy suddenly came back to us with a perplexed and slightly shocked view on his face. He asked where Ian was to which we returned a baffled gaze his way. Why? We asked. Guy then said that the coach house was completely empty, then it hit us! We suddenly realized what had made us subconsciously question this figure in the first place and our jaws dropped!

What we had seen was something that was as solid as you and me and it had caught us completely off-guard! Naturally we had switched off from our ghost hunting mode to go into clearing up after the event had finished and in doing so we missed giving our undivided attention to this entity. An entity that seems to have walked casually by a group of people in the very trade designed to gather evidence of such things when not one of them had a camera, camcorder or any other means of recording at hand to capture this sublime moment!

We believe this ghost was like so many simply going through the motions and perhaps its heavy walk to the coach house was just one of so many it had made in life, perhaps at this early hour heading in to start another days work. The incident has made us aware of how easy it is to become comfortable even at a haunted location and reminds us to watch out for something even after the intense hunting has passed