Wednesday 8th May 2019
Visiting allegedly haunted sites will always hold a great fascination for a great many people, as just one, basic, aspect of such a practice is the simple fact that it 'brings you into contact' with, on certain levels, the very ghosts and hauntings that you have been reading about - sometimes over the space of many years - and can serve to make the investigator feel just that little bit 'closer to the mystery' (for want of a better, less theatrical-sounding, term). My apologies for the dramatic angle here, but, no matter what your approach to this topic might be, it certainly seems that some form of contact with, or connection to, the subject is of paramount importance or emphasis to a great many?
Personally speaking, I've always found it highly fascinating and rewarding to be able to feel that you are bringing yourself 'closer to' the locations, events and characters involved; and - it has to be stressed - speaking as a highly sceptical and wholly objective researcher, this certainly doesn't mean (to me at least) a case of 'investigating in order to believe that I have experienced something paranormal', but, as with anything even mildly 'historical in nature', it's simply a case of 'adding meat to the bones' of the legends and tales we come into contact with and... well, basically... potentially being able to sometimes 'make human again' the highly 'insubstantial' characters that we find we are dealing with......
On this note, it's always felt terribly edifying to yours truly to be able to physicalise, in some way, those 'people that are now being presented to us purely in 'ghostly' form. A simple example of what I'm getting at here is - as occurred some years ago now - being able to stand at the real-life graveside of a person who was said to be one of the ghosts who haunted a fairly 'famous' (for its ghostly heritage) property in the Black Country region. Needless to say, this is a purely subjective act - given the overall subject being discussed here - but, purely on a personal level, I find it psychologically gratifying to be potentially able to 'put the human existence back into a ghost' at some level or another.....
And so: I was recently contacted by someone who, it turns out, is a close relative of one of the 'ghosts' that allegedly haunted a site that the W.M.G.C. investigated (on a few occasions) many years ago now. Because of the nature of the site, I'd initially taken the details related about the character in question with a pinch of salt; though, I hasten to add, that I will - as par for the course - 'make a record of everything' offered to me, over the duration of an investigation (including recordings, interviews, associated legends and stories, etc). Everything will be noted for reference purposes, while still taking nothing as gospel.... and so forth.
In this instance, the character concerned had been mentioned a great many times over my association with the site in question - by numerous, unrelated people - including conversations with individuals literally years after the investigations / main research venture had ceased. Again, believing that the data concerned could possibly have been little more than a well-known and much quoted 'legend' - embellished, added to, transformed, etc, with the passing of time - I had made a note of everything said, but still viewed the general topic with a dubious eye.......
On the whole, we will all have heard numerous, tragic tales of people supposedly associated with whatever places we are looking at.... but I'd personally hazard a guess that over 75% of these stories are nothing more than fantasy... or at least transmogrified, unrelated details that have been 'attached to a place' with time. Needless to say, these stories seem a definite staple when it comes to allegedly haunted sites... the more dramatic the better: murders, suicides, battles, assaults.... you name it, it's been suggested / applied, somewhere along the lines, from place to place.
And so, bringing this brief ramble to a close, I refrain from adding any real, pertinent detail to this note, for most obvious reasons, but suffice it to say it was a highly refreshing change to actually find myself contacted by someone who could verify the real-life details concerning, in this instance, a most tragic legend for me! As a result of this initially tentative inquiry, I find myself now able to view a death certificate for the person involved, visit a grave and peruse newspaper articles pertaining to their very real and sad demise. Despite the unfortunate details of the non-too-distant (historically speaking) matter, it is - again - highly satisfying to be able to 'add life to' the unfortunate character concerned......
Personally speaking, I've always found it highly fascinating and rewarding to be able to feel that you are bringing yourself 'closer to' the locations, events and characters involved; and - it has to be stressed - speaking as a highly sceptical and wholly objective researcher, this certainly doesn't mean (to me at least) a case of 'investigating in order to believe that I have experienced something paranormal', but, as with anything even mildly 'historical in nature', it's simply a case of 'adding meat to the bones' of the legends and tales we come into contact with and... well, basically... potentially being able to sometimes 'make human again' the highly 'insubstantial' characters that we find we are dealing with......
On this note, it's always felt terribly edifying to yours truly to be able to physicalise, in some way, those 'people that are now being presented to us purely in 'ghostly' form. A simple example of what I'm getting at here is - as occurred some years ago now - being able to stand at the real-life graveside of a person who was said to be one of the ghosts who haunted a fairly 'famous' (for its ghostly heritage) property in the Black Country region. Needless to say, this is a purely subjective act - given the overall subject being discussed here - but, purely on a personal level, I find it psychologically gratifying to be potentially able to 'put the human existence back into a ghost' at some level or another.....
And so: I was recently contacted by someone who, it turns out, is a close relative of one of the 'ghosts' that allegedly haunted a site that the W.M.G.C. investigated (on a few occasions) many years ago now. Because of the nature of the site, I'd initially taken the details related about the character in question with a pinch of salt; though, I hasten to add, that I will - as par for the course - 'make a record of everything' offered to me, over the duration of an investigation (including recordings, interviews, associated legends and stories, etc). Everything will be noted for reference purposes, while still taking nothing as gospel.... and so forth.
In this instance, the character concerned had been mentioned a great many times over my association with the site in question - by numerous, unrelated people - including conversations with individuals literally years after the investigations / main research venture had ceased. Again, believing that the data concerned could possibly have been little more than a well-known and much quoted 'legend' - embellished, added to, transformed, etc, with the passing of time - I had made a note of everything said, but still viewed the general topic with a dubious eye.......
On the whole, we will all have heard numerous, tragic tales of people supposedly associated with whatever places we are looking at.... but I'd personally hazard a guess that over 75% of these stories are nothing more than fantasy... or at least transmogrified, unrelated details that have been 'attached to a place' with time. Needless to say, these stories seem a definite staple when it comes to allegedly haunted sites... the more dramatic the better: murders, suicides, battles, assaults.... you name it, it's been suggested / applied, somewhere along the lines, from place to place.
And so, bringing this brief ramble to a close, I refrain from adding any real, pertinent detail to this note, for most obvious reasons, but suffice it to say it was a highly refreshing change to actually find myself contacted by someone who could verify the real-life details concerning, in this instance, a most tragic legend for me! As a result of this initially tentative inquiry, I find myself now able to view a death certificate for the person involved, visit a grave and peruse newspaper articles pertaining to their very real and sad demise. Despite the unfortunate details of the non-too-distant (historically speaking) matter, it is - again - highly satisfying to be able to 'add life to' the unfortunate character concerned......
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