tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16952385545396972922024-03-15T18:10:16.449-07:00Friends of David FarrantUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-71649698461672552242012-08-29T13:29:00.000-07:002011-08-31T11:02:27.504-07:00Welcome Everyone...<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">Many people will already be aware that I have my own personal Wordpress Blog at davidfarrant.org called The Human Touch which serves essentially as a ‘diary of my daily life’ on a personal basis. This has been up and running since August 2007 and presently has an average of 220 hits a day. Because of its nature as a personal diary, I have tended to omit detailed descriptions of ongoing investigations into ‘ghosts’ and other unexplained phenomena by the British Psychic and Occult Society (BPOS) from my writings on the other Blog, but an ongoing interest by many people into Society investigations - not least, in the infamous Highgate ‘vampire’ case to which I was central in the late 1960s/early 1970s - persuaded me to begin another Blog here for this purpose.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">I begin here with some abridged chapters from my best-selling book “Beyond the Highgate Vampire”, which, I think, gives an adequate account of that case and a few of the witnesses who laid claim at the time to having witnessed this mysterious phenomenon in and around Highgate Cemetery.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">Of course, these events are now just a part of history . . . or are they? The reported entity seen there has again been reported in more recent times, and I shall later be covering these local reports which seem to confirm that the ghostly figure (described rather ridiculously by some as a ‘vampire’!) is still active.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">READ ON . . . </span></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-44398614876227935402012-02-12T11:20:00.000-08:002012-02-12T11:32:34.005-08:00THE HAUNTING OF THE ANCIENT RAM INN (PART 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--JDHGwZqCc4/TzgSzZN96lI/AAAAAAAAASo/cStqpx5Nafc/s1600/Old+pub+sign+at+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--JDHGwZqCc4/TzgSzZN96lI/AAAAAAAAASo/cStqpx5Nafc/s400/Old+pub+sign+at+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div style="color: white;">SITUATED ON THE INCLINE of a steep hill in Wotton-under-Edge, the bottom of the building partially submerged at the side of the modern road, the Ancient Ram Inn plays host to a variety of ghosts. </div><div style="color: white;">Originally an 13th century inn, the earlier building was damaged by a fire that swept through much of the village at that time, but it was rebuilt as a tavern in the 14th century and catered to locals and lonely travelers until into the early part of the 19th century.</div><div style="color: white;">The present owner is John Humphries. He brought the dilapidated building (which none the less retained its ancient design and structural character) in 1967 and moved in with his wife and two young daughters. It was only soon afterwards that he learned about a compulsory purchase order that had been put upon the building by the local council. They wanted to demolish it to widen the road, apparently unconcerned about its ancient charm or rural antiquity. But John had other ideas and, backed by a determined campaign that had the support of the local people, eventually succeeded in overturning the council’s order and getting the Ram Inn registered as a grade two listed building.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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</div><div style="color: white;">There was a lot to be done, but John decided to stagger the work – a necessity perhaps as at this time he was working nights as a goods train driver. But before too long, he had turned the Ram into a comfortable home for himself and his family, and certainly discouraged the rats and mice that had long since made their home there undisturbed.</div><div style="color: white;">My first experiences with the RAM INN and its associated phenomena took place in October 1998. I had been contacted by Ross Gage, of the Sheffield Paranormal Society some months earlier about other cases of unexplained psychic activity, and we had finally got around to discussing the Ancient Ram Inn.</div><div style="color: white;">She had expressed her interest in conducting a nightly vigil there with other members of her group, and explained that she already had the permission of the owner, so it was just a question of arranging a date.</div><div style="color: white;">I was invited to attend once arrangements were finalised, and the date was eventually set for October 31 that year. But although originally intending to hold the vigil with four other members of the her group, at the last moment, three of them dropped out due to unforeseen circumstances.</div><div style="color: white;">I did not learn about this until the morning upon the intended day, although she told me, one other member of her group, David Holland, was still able to go and would be taking her in his car.</div><div style="color: white;">We agreed to meet at the RAM around 6pm. I decided to make my own way there by train. Ironically perhaps, I too, had been let down at the last minute by two local members of the BPOS who had supposed to have been arranging a car. Though I managed to take the matter philosophically, having learned of the unexpected twists and turns that can accompany psychic investigations.</div><div style="color: white;">It was already dark when my train had pulled into the station. It was barely 5.15, but the last bus had already left for Wotten-under-Edge, so I was forced to look for a taxi to cover the last twelve miles or so.</div><div style="color: white;">On first impressions, the building certainly lived up to its various descriptions. Mostly in darkness due to the absence of adequate street lights and the sunken shades in which it lay, one could just make out the antique timbered outline of its forlorn walls merging almost menacingly with the black sky. The sun – if ever it came out there – could surely never penetrate such inpentrateable blackness; certainly not then, but you were only left to wonder whether the place would still maintain its black gloom in bright daylight.</div><div style="color: white;">It was hard to imagine any light being cast upon this formidable place. But then I knew that, imagination, when applied to fields of the Unknown, should not be allowed to stray into the realms of fantasy or supposition, thereby clouding direct perception into things which were not reliant on “normal” visual images or everyday impressions.</div><div style="color: white;">I arrived at the Ram Inn, to find that Ross Gage and Dave Holland had only just arrived. John Humphries was not quite as I had expected. I Judged him to be around seventy – and I was actually right as far as that turned out. From first impressions, he looked mildly eccentric, wearing a black leather cap and a ‘Hell’s-Angels-type’ jacket with leather tassels across the chest, and tight blue jeans. He certainly wasn’t well dressed. He spoke with a distinct Devonshire accent, but at the same time, was quite softly spoken and cordial.</div><div style="color: white;">He offered us all tea, and almost from the onset he started describing experiences that he’d had in the Ram Inn itself. We learned, for example, that he lived mainly in a converted garage at one end of the Inn which he’d converted into a living room-cum kitchen with a sleeping area upstairs. This was actually an extension to the original Inn, and the reason he’d done that was, because he wouldn’t enter the Ram Inn at night on his own, and he felt more secure in this little self-contained living-quarters he’d constructed. But he told us, that even when he was alone in this little self-built ‘house’, if you like, he’d often experienced drops of temperature and he frequently heard strange noises during the night; for instance, distinct “tapping sounds” or the sound of footsteps walking around in the main part of the Inn. And, needless to say, when he was on his own, he never went into the Inn itself to check them out. But as well as that, he told us about experiences which other people had had, who had visited the Ram Inn. For example, a visitor there had once been “pushed over” in the main part of the Inn. He had been pushed to the ground with some quite considerable force for no apparent reason. Another interesting thing he told us, was that he often saw strange orbs of light floating around the Inn after dark, but he’d seen these so often that he’d become quite accustomed to them, so these didn’t really worry him unlike some of the effects caused by the other ghosts – or whatever they were – that haunted the place.</div><div style="color: white;">Another interesting fact that we learned from John Humphries about the alleged psychic activity at the Inn, seemed to bear out that the alleged psychic phenomena ‘at work’ there seemed to be definitely malevolent by nature. It may be recalled that, in his younger days, John Humphries had serious considered the possibility of becoming a Methodist preacher. In the event, this never happened, but John had acquired a ‘prize’ portrait of John Wesley which, in his early days in residence at the Ram, he kept hanging on the stairs. But almost from the first moment he hung this portrait on the wall, ‘something’ kept removing it and throwing it down to the floor. He kept replacing it but systematically, the portrait kept being removed after he had replaced it on the wall. In the end he gave up. He wouldn’t throw the painting out, obviously, but was eventually forced to secure it behind other objects in a corner.</div><div style="color: white;">After having explained the basic history of the Inn and bring us up to date with the psychic goings-on there, we decided to go out and get something to eat and come back after ten (it was now about half past eight in the evening) and set up the equipment up to start the nightly vigil for around midnight.</div><div style="color: white;">In fact, we later set up most of the equipment we had in The Bishop’s Room upstairs – supposedly the most haunted room in the Inn. (Because the other people hadn’t been able to attend, we had to make do without some items, such as the night-vision video cameras).</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">(c) David Farrant</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-27964994979981292772012-02-12T11:18:00.000-08:002012-02-12T11:44:57.594-08:00THE HAUNTING OF THE ANCIENT RAM INN (PART 2)<div style="color: white;"> IT WAS A VERY COLD NIGHT and there was absolutely no heating upstairs where we were. There was light, although we preferred to work by candlelight instead and use torches. An exception to this was a light that John Humphries had insisted that we left on in in the attic. There had been some partial renovation work done there and he did not want to be responsible if anybody went up there and injured themselves by falling over the rubble. In fact, the attic was lit only by a small table lamp with a dim 40 watt bulb, and ghosts aside, it was easy to see how physical injury might have occurred in the dark It was still very gloomy and hazardous being strewn with discarded furniture and scarcely visible on the floor, and the numerous cobwebs clinging tenaciously to your face did nothing to help you keep balance. The Bishop’s Room, in fact, lay right beneath a part of the attic, which itself ran across most of the main building.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Farrant in the haunted Bishops Room at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">Ross Gage set up an electronic thermometer up in The Bishop’s Room and, interestingly enough, even before that was actually used, there were distinct ‘cold spots‘ throughout that particular room. We actually sensed these ‘cold spots’ before we used the thermometer itself; the thermometer merely confirming this later by its electronic readings. In fact, it was possible to ‘walk through‘ these cold spots, which were about two feet in diameter, and you could actually stand outside them and put your hand inside the invisible space and feel the distinct drop in temperature. And this wasn’t just imagination.</div><div style="color: white;">The main vigil was spent within The Bishop’s Room, which, after all, was supposed to be the most haunted room in the building. Ross Gage spent most of her time here recording temperature variations and taking other measurements whilst Dave Holland and myself ‘moved around’ a little more; in particular spending some time in another supposedly haunted room by candlelight (near to The Bishop’s Room) and in the attic – obviously, with cameras at the ready. We also had small tape recorders with us, just in case!</div><div style="color: white;">We spent about an hour in that particular room, but apart from the odd strange noise such as ‘creaking sounds‘ bangs or thuds which could have happened in any old building and which were are not necessarily supernatural, at one stage we did actually hear a distinct ‘knocking sound’ up above in the attic. Its hard to say if these could have been rats knocking something over or whether it was of supernatural origin. But we decided to go up into the attic and spend and spend a couple of hours there to see if we could witness anything.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Secret attic chamber at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">David Holland positioned himself at one end of the attic, while I was at the other. I took two or three pictures at random before noticing that the built-in light meter in my camera had ceased to register, despite the fact I was using an ultra sensitive 1500 ASA film.. Now, even in that very low light it should have picked up some sort of reading; but the needle just remained ‘dead’. I checked the camera but found nothing untoward so focused it directly on the table light itself, but still a zero reading. The needle would not budge.</div><div style="color: white;">This apparent malfunctioning of the camera did not unduly surprise me. For on past occasions this had happened at other supposedly haunted places. Indeed, I recall once at supposedly haunted Whittington Castle in Shropshire, the camera had acted in a similar manner when I was trying to take some photographs at the top of one of the ruined towers. It was a bright sunlit afternoon but the camera’s meter refused to register within an area of about six feet but if you stepped outside the diameter of this ‘invisible circle’, the needle registered as normal. </div><div style="color: white;">After spending a good hour in the attic, we went back downstairs to The Bishop’s Room and it was then that Ross Gage confirmed to us that every fifteen minutes the temperature dropped quickly and distinctly by four degrees (she was taking all these readings down in concise detail). It remained that way for five minutes or so and then it returned to normal. But then precisely fifteen minutes later, the same thing would happen again following a consistent pattern.</div><div style="color: white;">Apart from these the drops in temperature, she hadn’t actually witnessed anything, other than claiming to have heard some unusual sounds in the an adjacent room. She’d gone outside to look but apparently, there wasn’t any apparent cause for it. By this time it was about three o’clock in the morning, so we thought we might as well lie down in the Bishop’s room, obviously with tape recorders, cameras and torches at the ready, and spend some time there to see if anything happened. The Bishop’s room, I should add, was still very well furnished; there was a large four-poster bed in there with two antique single beds either side so there was no lack of space for people to lie down. John Humphries had supplied us with ample blankets to keep warm, so we thought we might as well relax for awhile for this part of the vigil – so we settled down and just lay in silence for some time.</div><div style="color: white;">It was about an hour after that, we all heard a distinct tapping noise coming from the ceiling, obviously caused by something knocking on the floor in the attic. In fact, I was lying in the end bed nearest the window, and this sound occurred right above my head; but everyone could hear it, it was that distinct. It was rather like hearing somebody knocking purposely on a door, to let you know they were there and that they wanted to come in; distinct, and almost ‘deliberate. This happened twice with a gap of about half a minute in-between. There were five or six knocks each time; not pounding, not soft either, rather like somebody using their knuckles knocking sharply on wood.</div><div style="color: white;">Needless to say, leaving Ross down in The Bishop’s Room in case the sounds occurred again, Dave Holland and myself went back to the attic and located the spot these knocks would have come from, because you could tell roughly where the beds were underneath. But there was nothing there to account for the sounds them and it was very hard to contemplate such sounds being made by rats or mice, even had they knocked something over.</div><div style="color: white;">Apart from these occurrences, not least the regular drops in temperature which went on until daybreak, the rest of the night was seemingly uneventful. But these relatively small things that did occur, were certainly not the result of fanciful imagination, nor did there appear to be any logical cause to explain them. It could be added here – and this cannot be taken as any sort of ‘psychic proof’ – there was a very strange atmosphere that seemed to permeate The Bishop’s Room and the attic. you’d have to actually be there to experience this precisely. But everything was deathly quiet. Perhaps that in itself is not so surprising because there was little or no traffic that time of night and the Inn lay isolated at the edge of the village. But quite apart from the quietness, there was a sort of overbearing sense – and I’m not trying to sound sensationalistic – sense that somebody was watching you. You really felt that everywhere you went, whether walking around lying down or sitting in a chair, ‘somebody‘ was aware of your presence. I can’t really describe it any better than that, because this it was more of a sensation that could only be picked up by the senses, not by any sort of physical means.</div><div style="color: white;">But it was not just in The Bishop’s Room or in the attic that this ‘atmosphere’ prevailed. The Inn itself was very atmospheric throughout, maybe partly due to its construction and layout. It was filled with antique furniture, and had extremely old fireplaces which had remained unchanged for centuries, with strange symbols engraved in the stone hearths of some of them, which were most likely symbols of protection against evil spirits. Indeed, a huge fireplace downstairs was strongly rumoured to have concealed a secret passageway leading from it to the church which lay a couple of hundred yards away. Near this, in the same room in fact, there was a deep hole in the stone floor where the floor had been dug up to a depth of about five feet. It was explained to us later, that on an earlier occasion, John Humphries had called in some dowsers who’d expressed an interest in the place, and they were looking for any other underground passages, covered-over wells, or anything of the kind, and one of these dowsers told him that there was something lying beneath the foundations. He’d got a violent reaction with the dowsing stick at this part of the floor. So they eventually dug down (and this was obviously a few years before we visited), and they actually discovered a lot of children’s bones and a couple of sacrificial daggers. Obviously, this was reported to the police, but there was nothing much that the police could do after they’d deduced that the age of the skeletons were several centuries old.</div><div style="color: white;">I believe these bones were forensically examined and it was confirmed that they were hundreds of years old. But obviously the conclusion by John Humphries and many other people was., that human sacrifice had taken place in the actual Inn itself at a much earlier date.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Farrant at the site of a secret grave in the cellar of the Ancient Ram Inn where children's bones and sacrificial daggers were discovered (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">We left The Ancient Ram Inn next morning after being given some tea by John Humphries. It was a Sunday and there were no buses running, but somebody kindly gave me a lift to the nearest railway station, at Stroud some twelve miles away. We said our good-byes to John Humphries and he invited us back again. And as we left he more-or -less apologised that nothing much had happened because, he said, that normally anybody that spent a vigil there usually experienced much more definite phenomena. He added that perhaps we had just picked a bad time …</div><div style="color: white;">In fact I was to return again to the Ram to hold another nightly vigil there. This occurred in the autumn of 2002 and was attended by members of the Black Country Paranormal Society. But that, of course, would have to be another story.</div><div style="color: white;">© DAVID FARRANT</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-42750767440837769072012-02-12T11:15:00.000-08:002012-02-12T11:56:24.089-08:00THE HAUNTING OF THE ANCIENT RAM INN, (SECOND NIGHTLY VIGIL PART 1)<div style="color: white;"><b>Here is an account of the second vigil at the Ancient Ram Inn which took place in November 2002. In fact, I traveled down with Dave Milner and met members of the BCPS down there who who needed two cars to transport the equipment (and the others members!). </b></div><div style="color: white;"><b>It was an eventful trip, although unfortunately (for myself) it took place not long after I had injured my back so I had a little trouble in getting around. Anyway, I made it! Here is Part 1 as its really too long to do in one post. Hope Ram Inn enthusiasts enjoy it . . . David.</b></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">THE SECOND TIME I visited the Ancient Ram Inn, was not with Ross Gage this time but with members of the Black Country Paranormal Society from Wolverhamption. This visit in fact took place one Saturday night in early November, 2002. I’d obviously been in contact with John Humphries previously and arranged it, and I traveled down there with Dave Milner – independent coordinator for BPOS investigations and activities – by train.</div><div style="color: white;">The original intention was to hire a car so we could take more equipment with us and for reasons of convenience. But, due to some difficulty at the car hire place in the West End, we were unable to hire one – something to do with having to pay for an extra day as we could not return it on a Sunday. Whatever, this additional price was astronomical for what amounted to a day’s non-useage, so we decided to take a train. Accordingly, we met the other BCPS members at Wotton-under-Edge arriving about 5 p.m. These included Wayne Pickerell, Founder Member of the BCPS, his wife Heidi, Anne and her husband Jeff, and Wayne’s brother Mark and his girlfriend, Vicky. In fact, they gone in two cars down there, which they needed having quite a lot of investigative equipment. We’d arranged to meet at the church and they’d already arrived by the time Dave Milner and myself got there. The church was chosen because they were reluctant to introduce themselves to John Humphries without my being there; simply because I had already met him and arriving in a complete group made them feel more at ease. We arrived at the Ram around 6 p.m.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-woib19L0zdY/TzgYBFqryrI/AAAAAAAAATQ/8zg_Y3kNz5s/s1600/David+Farrant+with+members+of+the+BCPS+at+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-woib19L0zdY/TzgYBFqryrI/AAAAAAAAATQ/8zg_Y3kNz5s/s640/David+Farrant+with+members+of+the+BCPS+at+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David Farrant with members of the BCPS at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">Another vigil like the first one took place but this time we obviously had more equipment with us which, obviously, took longer time to set up. But again, we all went out and had a meal first, arriving back at the Inn around 11 O’clock in the evening.</div><div style="color: white;">Wayne Pickerell set up highly sophisticated night-video equipment in the Bishop’s Room. We sealed the door but we had a monitor outside so we could sit and watch for any signs of any potential in there. In turn, this was videoed on long -play tape, so should anything unusual or untoward have happened, it would have been recorded.</div><div style="color: white;">The other room adjacent to the Bishop’s Room, the one which was also reputedly quite haunted, was also similarly wired up; only in this case, to an audio cassette recorder that might potentially ‘capture‘ any unusual sounds. Again, the door was sealed; mainly to prevent any extraneous sounds affecting the microphone, but also to prevent any member of the group accidentally walking in there. (It should be remembered that we were, by choice, working under very dim light; apart from which, BCPS members were working in unfamiliar territory.) Obviously, one person had to keep a permanent eye on the monitor (we agree to take this in hourly shifts as it was quite a laborious task) and this also applied to the audio tape to make sure it kept running smoothly. While this was going on, the rest of us thoroughly explored the place, in particular looking for any distinct changes in temperature or other signs, such as any changes in dust patterns that might have betrayed the movement of objects.</div><div style="color: white;">I do remember that before this particular vigil I had sustained a foot injury, so I was unwilling – if not unable – to go up into the attic. It had been difficult enough to get up the partially broken staircase that led to the Bishop’s Room, let alone to attempt to climb the hazardous almost vertical steps that led to the attic. Two of the others, however, went up into the attic and spent a vigil there in the dark. One of these, Wayne’s brother, Mark, was later to claim that he’d heard some strange inexplicable sounds up there. I do know that after hearing these he took a couple of random photographs up there in the direction of the strange noises. Now, I believe, although I haven’t actually yet seen the picture myself, that when it was later developed, there were some strange light formation appearing on it.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The haunted fireplace at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">I should add that before all this took place, that is before all this equipment was set up and we’d sealed the two rooms, we took quite a few pictures in the Bishop’s room and elsewhere with our own cameras. Dave Milner had a digital camera and he took some pictures of the whole group before the vigil started. He took some outside the Inn and we all took pictures of the “sacrificial grave” which had still not been covered up by this time, and the old fireplace which supposedly had a secret passage leading to the church. I remember that Dave Milner took a picture of myself alone in the Bishop’s Room before the vigil proper had begun, mainly for the purposes of a souvenir. When some of these photographs were later developed, they showed what appeared to be distinct spheres of light which were moving around. They were only still photographs, but some were taken in quick succession and you could see these distinct although indiscernible transparent balls of light, had moved position; although they were moving across the frame in front of the people, but they weren’t actually visible to anybody being photographed. But they certainly came out on film.</div><div style="color: white;">We should perhaps remember that John Humpheries had first mentioned these ‘orbs of light’ when I’d first visited the Ram with Ross Gage and Dave Holland in 1998, but I’d learned in the meantime that these ‘orbs’ that Dave Milner had caught on film had also been photographed by other independent people visiting the Inn using totally unrelated cameras. As a matter of interest John Humphries later sent me some of these photographs which are still in my possession taken on another occasion by another psychical research group from the North of England whose address I have on file, and they too showed identical orbs of light to the ones that had come out on our photographs. They were obviously not taken in exactly the same place, but the point being here is that these were taken by a group completely unknown to us, at a different time and with completely different cameras.</div><div style="color: white;">In fact, the photograph Dave Milner took of myself in the Bishop’s Room showed three or four orbs of light; and again, these hadn’t actually been visible to myself at the time when the picture was taken, but they came out on the film. It would seem that while the existence of these “orbs of light” can not ‘proved’ irrefutably, it can be reasonably stated that there may be some sort of unknown energy operative the effects of which can be ‘captured’ on film.</div><div style="color: white;">© DAVID FARRANT 2002</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-4041943005761893272012-02-12T11:10:00.000-08:002012-02-12T12:02:51.734-08:00THE HAUNTING OF THE ANCIENT RAM INN, (SECOND NIGHTLY VIGIL PART 2)<div style="color: white;">A good part of the night was spent monitoring the Bishop’s room and the adjacent room hoping to pick up any, shall we say, supernatural occurrences. Actually, the original idea was for Dave Milner to sleep in the Bishop’s Room, and he could be monitored, whether he actually managed to sleep or not, lying on the bed. He was a bit reluctant at first, but he agreed to do it but only on the understanding that we all went downstairs first to have some tea from flasks and get warm by the calor gas fire John Humphries had left on for us. In other words, for everybody to take a short break away from the gloom and despairing atmosphere that seemed to permeate the upstairs of the building. The idea was that, after this short respite in the investigation, Dave Milner could act as a firsthand witness to any unusual psychic activity in the Bishop’s Room in the event of any unusual occurrences as – and as seemed to have proved the case going by its past history – the Ram’s ghosts seemed to become more active in the presence of human witnesses. </div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: white; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXkUVb1edis/TzgZytUifPI/AAAAAAAAATg/YgkVdDDQrBg/s1600/John+Humphries+owner+of+the+Ram+Inn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oXkUVb1edis/TzgZytUifPI/AAAAAAAAATg/YgkVdDDQrBg/s640/John+Humphries+owner+of+the+Ram+Inn.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Humphries, owner of the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">Anyway, it seemed a more plausible alternative as opposed to rather just continuing to monitoring the room empty. And if it was the case that psychic energy might be in some way be activated by some “living presence” in the room – in this case Dave Milner – if anything happened it could be recorded on film and produce some sort of evidence of psychic activity.</div><div style="color: white;">After having discussed the matter downstairs for an hour or so and comparing notes in the still relatively depressing atmosphere that seemed to envelop the entire Inn after dark, I remained downstairs with Dave Milner, trying to grab as much available heat as possible, whilst Wayne went upstairs with the others to check the equipment and make sure it was ready for the next stage of the vigil. He said he would send somebody down to get us once the preparations were complete. Although Dave was set to get into the bed, I would be watching the monitor and checking around with the others. About twenty minutes after this, there seemed to be a slight commotion, movements of the others moving around upstairs which seemed at variance with a previous “organised silence”.</div><div style="color: white;">I went upstairs to find out what was happening, only to find Wayne packing up the equipment. He said he was sorry but they had to leave; not because of any “psychic anomalies” in the Inn itself, but because Heidi was feeling really unwell, an escalation of a condition that she’d had for over a week or more. I could tell this was no idle excuse. I had come to know Heidi quite well and realised she was not one who would easily give in to any effects of physical sickness, unless its results were real enough and she only longed the comfort of her own home and the warmth of her own bed. You could tell by looking at her that she looked drained by the temporary “bug” that had attached itself to her; indeed, even at dinner earlier before that vigil had even commenced, she looked slightly pale and had not been her normal talkative self. Wayne with his typical concern for other people, and notwithstanding that he was a dedicated psychic investigator himself who had frequently endured far more potent places than the Ancient Ram Inn, just wanted to take her back to Wolverhamption as quickly as possible, and had no wish to aggravate her condition by making her endure yet more hours in the cold, damp environment of the Inn.</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTk69MjjDnw/Tzgaov8v5CI/AAAAAAAAAT4/P2pmwv2wab8/s1600/The+devils+head+inside+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uTk69MjjDnw/Tzgaov8v5CI/AAAAAAAAAT4/P2pmwv2wab8/s640/The+devils+head+inside+the+Ram+Inn.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The devil's head at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div><div style="color: white;">So, after loading up the equipment, Wayne and the rest of his group left in their two cars at approximately a quarter to four that morning leaving Dave Milner and myself tired, but relatively comfortable, downstairs. Dave covered himself with blankets on a tattered settee and fell into a light sleep, probably relived no longer to be expected to try and sleep in the cold Bishop’s Room upstairs. I curled up on another sofa; cold and “sleepless” but hugging the warmth of the small calor gas fire.</div><div style="color: white;">Lying there in the dim light, my eyes absorbing the numerous strange objects and ornaments that cluttered the room, I suddenly became aware that something seemed “different”. I didn’t know what it was; only that there was just something ‘different’ in the room.</div><div style="color: white;">I had been idly watching an old grandfather-clock; not so much consciously, but because it commanded my line of vision on the wall opposite and it had almost an hypnotic effect in the undisturbed stillness. An orange glow reflected from the light of the gas fire, which by itself, seemed to reflect unreal images in a semi-real environment. You could see the light move across the yellowed glass; strange images, I thought, yet consoled by the fact the cause was only a gas container. It would have been easy to let imagination to wander in the confines of the Inn; but it was more an hypnotic effect, like fleeting illusions that seemed to be trying to defy reality.</div><div style="color: white;">Ironically, I was wide awake, but my attention was somehow drawn to the clock for no apparent reason.</div><div style="color: white;">I lay watching the minutes on the clock, casually “ticking these off” as it gradually approached daylight, when it suddenly dawned on me that what had taken five minutes on the clock, seemed to have taken more like half an hour. Its difficult to describe it more precisely than that. I never wore a watch, and Dave Milner was asleep, so I didn’t want to compare time by waking him up. But what was strange was, this went on for the next five minutes, and then the next five; it seemed to be an eternity. Eventually, what should have been about an hour or so, had only registered on the clock as about five minutes.</div><div style="color: white;">Then, all of a sudden, my attention was distracted by something else and I looked at another area in the room (as it was this turned out to be irrelevant; I had heard a ‘scratching noise’ but I assumed this to be a genuine rat or something) but when I looked back at the clock, I realised that something was ‘different’. The clock had actually stopped ticking. Before, its monotonous ticking sound had been almost a part of the background but now, after I had been distracted by the noise of the ‘rat‘, there was just an overbearing silence. I lay staring at the clock-face and could swear its hands were still moving forward. But this almost ‘hypnotic’ focusing’ caused me to fall into a ‘half-sleep’, and when I awoke fully it was light and I realised the clock had started ticking again. Dave Milner eventually woke up and I learned the exact time and, much to my surprise, the actual time registered on the clock was dead right. I was convinced these mysterious ‘time lapses’ – or perhaps more accurately ‘time-delays’ – had not been my imagination. Like most people, I was perfectly capable of being able to discern normal time spans; at least, be aware of the difference between lengthy periods and those accompanying only a minute or two. But another careful look at the clock confirmed that it hadn’t lost any time whatsoever.</div><div style="color: white;">We remained till the morning, and again, being a Sunday, there were no buses. But John Humphries called us a taxi and, once again, I watched the Ram Inn merge back into its virtual hiding place on the hill; an encapsled shrine in the bleak countryside that seemed to be in no hurry to give away its innermost secrets …</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">© DAVID FARRANT</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1U0I028EelY/TzgaWmIa6dI/AAAAAAAAATw/1nfYd3MsHOM/s1600/Mysterious+objects+in+the+Ancient+Ram+Inn.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1U0I028EelY/TzgaWmIa6dI/AAAAAAAAATw/1nfYd3MsHOM/s640/Mysterious+objects+in+the+Ancient+Ram+Inn.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mysterious objects at the Ancient Ram Inn (c) BPOS</td></tr>
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-24912950788635343712012-01-09T12:37:00.000-08:002012-01-09T12:37:50.673-08:00DAVID FARRANT: BEYOND THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><img src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/video_object.png" style="background-color: #b2b2b2; " class="BLOGGER-object-element tr_noresize tr_placeholder" id="ieooui" data-original-id="ieooui" /> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">Do such things as 'vampires' really exist? Or is such imagery merely the result of misguided theology, legend and outdated superstition?</span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">Author David Farrant throws a unique insight into the realm of ghosts, demons and 'vampires', and the fascinating realm in which they supposedly dwell. </span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Beyond the Highgate Vampire was the first contemporary account to expose the activities of Satanists in Highgate Cemetery. Including original reports received by the BPOS, it details the original BPOS investigation, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that concluded such activity may have been responsible for ‘activating’- or perhaps ‘re-activating’- a terrifying demonic entity which lurked in the environs of Highgate Cemetery. </span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia;"> </span></b></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="color: white; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rE9CDKR_F0s/TwtHx5zF7QI/AAAAAAAAASI/_6a36Vo1zPA/s1600/Highgate+Cem+Black+magic+markings+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rE9CDKR_F0s/TwtHx5zF7QI/AAAAAAAAASI/_6a36Vo1zPA/s400/Highgate+Cem+Black+magic+markings+PNG.PNG" width="400" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The markings themselves in the mausoleum, which indicated that a group of Satanists were regularly using Highgate Cemetery (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i></b> </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgz0MKS2G2o/TwtItZ7aBiI/AAAAAAAAASQ/ILHm3iyBESo/s1600/DF+in+HC+Cory-Wright.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qgz0MKS2G2o/TwtItZ7aBiI/AAAAAAAAASQ/ILHm3iyBESo/s640/DF+in+HC+Cory-Wright.png" width="452" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>David Farrant consecrating a vault desecrated by Satanists in Highgate Cemetery in 1971 (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i></b> </td></tr>
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</style> <![endif]--><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11.0pt;">Read 'Beyond the Highgate Vampire' to discover where fact divides from fiction in a remarkable tale of 20th century vampirism recorded at Highgate Cemetery in North London in 1970 ... true facts of supernatural origin which have never been disclosed in their entirety ... until now! </span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> </span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 18.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">FOR SOME YEARS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>now David Farrant has been renowned for his investigations into unexplained mysteries and other ghostly phenomena. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BKSWFiHeNwc/TwtLe_MWH0I/AAAAAAAAASY/EJzoL6W8npI/s1600/DF+with+Magister+PNG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="536" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BKSWFiHeNwc/TwtLe_MWH0I/AAAAAAAAASY/EJzoL6W8npI/s640/DF+with+Magister+PNG.png" width="640" /></a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Perhaps the most well known of these cases, at least, in so far as much that this came to be held in the public view, was the mysterious phenomenon that was reported at London's Highgate Cemetery in the late 1960's - a case that he was later to regret having investigated in the first place due to the unforeseen circumstances that were to arise. For as he describes in the book, David Farrant was taken to court for his involvement in the Highgate Cemetery affair in 1970, although he was also involved in a series of later court actions which he has chosen to leave out of this present account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps this is an inevitable consequence of space (or lack of it), for Farrant's involvement in the whole Highgate affair (not least, with the 'blood-sucking vampire' that was said to lurk at Highgate Cemetery), would have been wildly beyond the confines of the space he devotes to put forward the essential part of the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>investigation and his original arrest for 'vampire hunting' back in 1970. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tXx-XwyJt7Y/TwtG9Z0D0eI/AAAAAAAAASA/gHw1MLqemfE/s1600/David+F+-+Terraced+Catacombs.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="412" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tXx-XwyJt7Y/TwtG9Z0D0eI/AAAAAAAAASA/gHw1MLqemfE/s640/David+F+-+Terraced+Catacombs.PNG" width="640" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Discovery of a vandalised coffin by the author at Highgate Cemetery in 1971 (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i> </b></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>But these events, he deals with fairly, and I suppose it remains his privilege to record later happenings - the tragic consequences included - as and when these were to occur in the future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For the purposes of this present work, it would perhaps be fitting to remind ourselves, that the following account remains on record as a sober and factual testimony about the facts that surrounded the strange vampire-like entity that was said to haunt Highgate Cemetery.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">G.C.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">BEYOND THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE</span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">BY DAVID FARRANT</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">FOREWORD…</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">SO MUCH has already been written on the subject of ‘vampirism’ that it would seem an impossible task to write anything new about the subject without reverting to mere repetition or flirting with facts incredible - a trap that has ensnared even serious researchers since the myth was first born, somewhere, at some time in the distant mists of human memory.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But instances of vampirism (in their written form at least) are by no means confined to the whims and platitudes of their various creators (Bram Stoker included) and occasionally there will occur a ‘real life’ event that seemingly steps out of fiction to silence the objections of the most hardened sceptic. Perhaps the most famous case in recent times concerned the Croglin Grange incident when in Cumbria in 1875, a ‘vampire-like’ figure that had been terrorising the neighbourhood was shot by a band of ‘citizen vigilantes’ and later discovered lying in a bloodstained coffin - wound intact - in the vaults of a local cemetery; but another case that occurred only a few years ago was to take its turn in convincing many that there really existed such things as ‘blood-sucking vampires’. The year was 1970; the location, a semi-derelict Victorian burial ground on the outskirts of north London called Highgate Cemetery.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">In fact, the story really began the preceding year, although at this time consisted of little more than a series of ghostly sightings at - or around - Highgate Cemetery that had been marked down for investigation by the British Psychic and Occult Society (BPOS).</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HP9Yl5JI0jM/TwtFoNQ9F4I/AAAAAAAAARw/N58kpBOf1VI/s1600/The+Flask.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HP9Yl5JI0jM/TwtFoNQ9F4I/AAAAAAAAARw/N58kpBOf1VI/s400/The+Flask.png" width="400" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Flask public house, not more than a stone's throw away from Highgate Cemetery, where a "black-clad" apparition was sighted. (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i></b> </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZDvWTtbfeQ/TwtGSVh0hcI/AAAAAAAAAR4/k_h1DieQudQ/s1600/Hillcrest.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HZDvWTtbfeQ/TwtGSVh0hcI/AAAAAAAAAR4/k_h1DieQudQ/s400/Hillcrest.png" width="400" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The council flats at "Hillcrest", scene of drastic bouts of psychic activity (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i></b> </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> It was little dreamt that this subsequent investigation was to uncover a sequence of strange events (some would say ‘sinister’) that were to eventually associate Highgate Cemetery with a unique outbreak of 20th century vampirism. Some of these events are now all but history, but many others have become immersed in a deluge of fact and counter-fact, the truth having long since been buried beneath a welter of unfounded supposition and frivolous publicity.</span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZGJ0CRp3J0/TwtEcUZQTaI/AAAAAAAAARg/inpJwzSYNXk/s1600/ITV+interview+Swains+Lane.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ZGJ0CRp3J0/TwtEcUZQTaI/AAAAAAAAARg/inpJwzSYNXk/s400/ITV+interview+Swains+Lane.PNG" width="400" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>David Farrant being interviewed by ITV Television about the Highgate Vampire in March 1970 (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i> </b></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b> </b></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AIIJ--4tzMg/TwtE4F6cDBI/AAAAAAAAARo/V_G4y5TLsbo/s1600/Still+from+24+Hours.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="278" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AIIJ--4tzMg/TwtE4F6cDBI/AAAAAAAAARo/V_G4y5TLsbo/s400/Still+from+24+Hours.png" width="400" /></a></b></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The author speaking on the BBC television programme "24 Hours" in October, 1971 (<i>Photo (c) BPOS)</i></b> </td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><b><span style="font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">It is only now, some twenty years after the case first came into the public view, that the BPOS have chosen to release the true facts underlying the original investigation. The motive is to clarify once and for all the general uncertainty and misunderstanding over what may, or may not have been, a ‘vampire’ at Highgate Cemetery.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-83776117116376054992012-01-06T06:43:00.000-08:002012-01-06T06:43:57.490-08:00DAVID FARRANT: OUT OF THE SHADOWS<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong></strong></span></span></b> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><strong>An Autobiography - Vol. 2</strong></span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ADj-8-twnV0/Twb066KflaI/AAAAAAAAAQY/WTgBoLcGA2Q/s1600/Out+of+the+Shadows+FRONT+COVER+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ADj-8-twnV0/Twb066KflaI/AAAAAAAAAQY/WTgBoLcGA2Q/s320/Out+of+the+Shadows+FRONT+COVER+PNG.PNG" width="212" /></a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Following on from<strong> </strong>his bestselling book <i>In the Shadow of the Highgate Vampire</i>, David Farrant picks up the story where the first volume left off, with his infamous ‘Witchcraft Trial’ at the Old Bailey in 1974. In a no holds barred account, David finally tells the full story of life behind prison bars, and dispels the myths and rumours that have grown out of those dark years. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KheYx8-gJA8/Twb-DL_3TnI/AAAAAAAAAQg/GxvYf3Ki1SA/s1600/Police+car+HGC+PNG.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KheYx8-gJA8/Twb-DL_3TnI/AAAAAAAAAQg/GxvYf3Ki1SA/s400/Police+car+HGC+PNG.JPG" width="400" /></a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KBdGyfe5nuI/Twb-sPJ5tSI/AAAAAAAAAQo/QyTrFKIn6dg/s1600/DF18+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KBdGyfe5nuI/Twb-sPJ5tSI/AAAAAAAAAQo/QyTrFKIn6dg/s640/DF18+PNG.PNG" width="640" /></a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">David was facing a number of ‘occult related’ charges; including conducting nude witchcraft rituals in open vaults in London’s Highgate Cemetery; being in possession of a loaded firearm,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and threatening two police detectives by sending them ‘voodoo death dolls’ impaled by pins.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The book goes on to deal with his convictions at the Old Bailey and details his life at various prisons, where he was to gain further notoriety for involving other prisoners in the ‘occult lifestyle’ for which he had been sent to prison.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He had a thriving Coven in there” as one prisoner on release told <i>The Sunday People, </i>which resulted in a newspaper headline . . . <i>Naked Witchcraft in the Nick. </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Forced to share a cell with a notorious axe murderer who would eventually come to fear him, David reveals the details behind the secret magic rituals that took place in the cells and how prisoners would turn to him for help and advice.</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">David describes his clashes with the top levels of prison authority as they constantly tried to censor his communication with the outside world. Refusing to admit defeat, he took his case to the Home Office and European Commission for Human Rights whilst still managing to smuggle letters out before finally going on a hunger strike in a bid to clear his name. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6snya714nGw/Twb_MHceW3I/AAAAAAAAAQw/ecSqE54JB20/s1600/Picture5+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6snya714nGw/Twb_MHceW3I/AAAAAAAAAQw/ecSqE54JB20/s320/Picture5+PNG.PNG" width="320" /></a></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Moved from prison to prison in attempts to break his rebellious spirit, David was finally released in 1976 from Blunderstone Prison with a one way ticket to London. Penniless, homeless, divorced and still trying to come to terms with the death of his parents, David returned to a world which he no longer recognised. Unfortunately the world recognised him, and the media witch hunt had only just begun. </span></b></div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><b style="color: white;"> </b><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But behind the headlines life went on, and Farrant goes on to detail his marriage to a controversial white witch in 1979 (<i>And the Bride Wore Black </i>as one tabloid dutifully reported); his meetings with the late comedian Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>his involvement with the well known French author and occultist Jean-Paul Bourre which resulted in his guest appearance at the </span>Congrès Luciférienne<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> in Paris alongside a variety of international mystics and occultists, and a host of other detailed psychic investigations and ‘ghost hunting’ trips with which he was involved in the intervening years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e548HK43gwk/Twb_aR7wIhI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/GpvcKLvOl4s/s1600/Hubble+Bubble+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e548HK43gwk/Twb_aR7wIhI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/GpvcKLvOl4s/s400/Hubble+Bubble+PNG.PNG" width="332" /></a><b><span lang="EN-GB">In between all this,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>he continued to be the subject of much ire from some rival occultists, all trying to prove that they had greater magical abilities; one of whom persistently challenged him to a series of ‘duels’ in an attempt to ‘prove’ his superiority. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the main, David ignored these challenges, made to usurp his public position, but has included them as part of the record, purely for their entertainment value, and to enable a fuller picture of the London ‘occult scene’ to be presented.</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB"><span> </span></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QFcmJYocsBk/TwcA5bT29uI/AAAAAAAAARY/fI2srj69psk/s1600/JPB+PNG.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="433" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QFcmJYocsBk/TwcA5bT29uI/AAAAAAAAARY/fI2srj69psk/s640/JPB+PNG.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></b></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The real circumstances behind these, and many other incidents which gained David infamy in both the ‘occult’ and public spheres are presented here in detail. This continuing account, in the author’s own words, offers the curious reader a personal insight into events which have become clouded by so much controversy and misinformation over the last four decades. Out of the shadows, but back into the spotlight, the story continues…</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">ABOUT THE AUTHOR</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">David Farrant is a well known psychic investigator, writer and researcher whose many findings on the paranormal have published around the world. He is Founder President of the British Psychic and Occult Society, which was established in 1967, and gives regular talks on the subjects of ghosts and the supernatural. </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-79628761804355882202012-01-01T17:06:00.000-08:002012-01-01T17:06:23.397-08:00Asa Bailey's 'The Highgate Vampire'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_i8AXFxtbzU/TwEC0oxylFI/AAAAAAAAAP4/FZ7C0xjAF88/s1600/Ham+and+High+29+Dec+2011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_i8AXFxtbzU/TwEC0oxylFI/AAAAAAAAAP4/FZ7C0xjAF88/s640/Ham+and+High+29+Dec+2011.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-65566974677847732832011-12-31T06:50:00.000-08:002012-01-01T17:36:28.724-08:00DAVID FARRANT: IN THE SHADOW OF THE HIGHGATE VAMPIRE<div style="color: white;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 9pt;"> </span></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NGqrilp2eIc/TwEIa-NSeSI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/wsDyvBNCchw/s1600/Vol+1+Front+Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NGqrilp2eIc/TwEIa-NSeSI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/wsDyvBNCchw/s640/Vol+1+Front+Cover.jpg" width="440" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Born in London’s leafy Highgate suburb, David Farrant has now become as closely linked to the area, as the infamous ‘Highgate Vampire’ story that he first broke to worldwide media attention four decades ago – a story that resulted in his eventual arrest and imprisonment. Well known psychic investigator and author of over two dozen books, David Farrant has taken two of his biggest selling books ‘Dark Secrets’ and ‘Shadows in the Night’, and combined them; adding over a hundred new pages featuring never before seen photographs from his personal collection, to bring you this definitive autobiography.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Brutally honest and refreshingly candid, the story charts David’s life from his childhood in Highgate, through to his travels across Europe as a headstrong fifteen year old after the death of his beloved mother.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">The voyage of self discovery takes him from the grounds of private schools to the seedy backstreets of France, and through the mountains of Spain before finally returning home to Highgate only to face public and worldwide scrutiny over the infamous Highgate Vampire episode.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">A veritable Who’s Who of celebrities and villains are also referenced, from the Kray twins; the death of Joe Meek (wrongly asserted by some to be the result of a hex devised by David); the sinister neighbour who turned out to be mass murderer Dennis Nielson; visits at his parents’ home from Spike Milligan, and to his friendship with Graham Chapman of ‘Monty Python’ fame. Those with an avid curiosity about David’s personal life will also nor be disappointed – but be prepared to be shocked!</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">As we return with David to 1960s and 1970s Britain, we are invited to experience the moral climate of the day, that broad gulf which stretched between the entrenched attitudes of the old order, and a post-war generation that was embracing never before known freedoms and opportunities at a giddily accelerating pace. </span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div style="color: white;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">David provides the reader with a unique and personal insight into the sensibility of this era of Highgate’s history. He details his experiences within the relatively safe confines of a Barnet Wiccan coven, and his break away movement into a more dangerous experimental magic. Even in the world of the occult and organised alternative religion the younger generation were rebelling against the restrictions imposed therein. And the occult itself had become a popular fascination for many; a new and exciting world which was the thing to be ‘into’ – but which was also the catalyst which contributed to the legacy afforded by many of the well known personalities in occult and paranormal circles today. </span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">There are clear differences between the Wiccan beliefs and practices, and explorative High Magic techniques he describes at length in his book, and the darker, often Satanic practices he was accused of by the popular press, including black masses, naked orgies, and necromancy.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">There are many incidents recounted in this volume which have in themselves attained cult status. Recurrent ‘occult duels’ between David and rival ‘occultists’, often complete with pre-battle publicity shots, were chronicled by the local and national press. Their readers, with tongue firmly in cheek, anxiously awaited the outcome of these frightful duels to the death (or, more correctly, to first blood). We also find out the truth behind the Daily Express and The Sun’s accusations that David had kidnapped and sacrificed the blues singer Long John Baldry’s cat. </span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">It was against this backdrop that David’s involvement with the phenomenon which is now known as the Highgate Vampire began. Local sightings of a dark entity in and around Highgate Cemetery led to an investigation by the British Psychic and Occult Occult Society of which David remains Founder President. Amid escalating press hysteria maintaining that a real-life bloodsucking vampire was terrorising North London, the Society continued its attempts to decipher the true nature of the shadowy aggressor, and its connection with Satanic activity within the tombs of the cemetery. Various ceremonies, detailed within this volume, were conducted within the cemetery in an attempt to make contact with the entity, with varying degrees of success. These attracted the unwelcome attention not only of other occult groups, but also the Police who had begun to keep a close watch on David’s activities. </span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">By the time of the arrest which led to his trial, David had already been arrested three times - essentially for the practice of magical rituals in public places, regardless of how these charges had been worded in point of law. Eventually David’s impulsiveness and headstrong defiance was catching up with him. A dossier of circumstantial and fabricated evidence had been compiled which identified him as the principle cause of the vandalism and desecration which had defiled once peaceful Highgate Cemetery. His now admittedly misguided decision to send voodoo effigies as a warning to police officers who had assaulted a society member was probably the final straw. The police had long made it very clear that they considered him a public nuisance and an outrage, and his time was running out...</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB">‘I have known the name David Farrant ever since I first started reading about and investigating the paranormal. His conversational style of writing comes across as very personal so you get a real sense of David’s character and strong feelings towards those around him at the time. I found ‘In the Shadow of the Highgate Vampire’ an intriguing insight to the Highgate case and the man thrust into the media storm that surrounded it.’</span></i><span lang="EN-GB"> - Ian Topham, Mysterious Britain and Ireland</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><span lang="EN-GB">A Note from the Author</span></u></i></b></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Why the need for a new autobiography?<br />
Simple.<br />
With the advent of the internet, a lot has been said about me and my life by people with an agenda to discredit me.<br />
Whilst it was interesting to see what lengths people would go to in the early days, a close friend suggested that I take on board all of the comments and answer the critics - who better than me to tell you about my life?<br />
A lot of readers said they felt there were important parts of my life missing from my two previous autobiographical volumes, so here, for the very first time, is a complete, concise account of my life from the beginning right up until the events of '74 when I found myself facing a long prison sentence.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Rather than take an all too easy way out, I have been pushed by close friends who have told me to leave no stone unturned as truth is sometimes far stranger than fiction.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Volume II, which is now complete and also available, picks up the story from the last page of Volume I and includes never before seen court transcripts of my trial and the aftermath. <br />
At 275 pages, it has been a daunting task to go over the events of my life whilst picking at old wounds to scribe new blood in the story.<br />
I hope you, as the reader, will have a better understanding of the truth as it actually happened.</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">The book has been a labour of love that many people have tried to stop me from completing whilst going to extraordinary lengths in the process.<br />
For me, the final volume looks as good as it reads, with a cover that I hope does some justice to the pages within.<br />
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I do hope you enjoy the read!</span></div><span style="color: white;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">David</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-76538149020014254032011-10-15T14:01:00.000-07:002011-10-15T14:01:59.206-07:00THE GHOST OF BLACKBIRD COTTAGE<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">PERHAPS ONE REASON so few ghost stories have emerged from Wales compared to the flood of stories and legends hailing from other parts of the country, is a definite suspicion in some rural communities of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'outsiders' who, by posing ‘alien’ questions, are seen to pose a threat to intimate, if not the guarded, lifestyles of some people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it follows that anyone pursuing enquiry’s of a supernatural nature<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- enquires which in turn may be seen to intrude upon the privacy of both those living and dead, are often treated with disdain, if not with cold indifference or outright hostility.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Such at least, proved to be the case during a visit by the author to <place w:st="on">North Wales</place>, though it should be said that patience and persistence revealed an unique haunting and one which had hitherto escaped written documentation.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">For some years a ruined cottage near Deiniolen in the Snowdonia valley has been linked with stories of supernatural happenings and a wandering shadowy figure that emanates an aura of intense evil and despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Blackbird Cottage as it is known lies secluded near the bottom of a deep mountain slope, its stone walls intact, the broken roof still withstanding despite persistent falls of rain.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Its history is relatively unknown but it has somehow acquired a fearsome reputation, sufficient it would appear, to prevent most villagers visiting the area at night.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although some have lent their testimonies to the existence of something "very sinister" lurking in the vicinity, most displayed a marked reluctance to recount details of any given experiences, making consecutive accounts hard to track down.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">But despite the local<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'veil of secrecy' that seemed to envelop the case, eventually research led to two young ghost hunters who actually claimed to have encountered a ghostly figure at the cottage first hand and (perhaps in refreshing contrast to others interviewed) did not mind relating their experience.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3HBlV77Mesg/TpnzOSwi1kI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/e9Q4SpT6llA/s1600/Untitled-6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="273" oda="true" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3HBlV77Mesg/TpnzOSwi1kI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/e9Q4SpT6llA/s400/Untitled-6.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: white;">Paula Haywood <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">and <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Jemima Mitchell with David Farrant</span></span></span></span></td></tr>
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Paula Haywood of Tyn-y-Gerdd, Deiniolen and Jemima Mitchell of Bordorgan, Anglesea, both claimed to have seen the ghostly figure on two occasions after deciding to explore the ruins for evidence of its ghost.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Their first visit took place during the day and before long they both sensed an overbearing sense of melancholy inside the cottage and a distinct feeling of being watched from one of the back rooms. It was a mild day with a gentle breeze blowing from the mountains but inside the temperature seemed to have dropped to the extent it was 'like being inside a refrigerator'.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They decided to leave but glancing back they both saw a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'shadowy figure' coming towards them from out of the back room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ghost hovered motionlessly before suddenly disappearing into a bare stone wall one side of the corridor.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Shaken but undeterred by the incident, Paula and Jemima returned about a week later, this time at night and accompanied by a male companion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was a bright moon and as they approached the cottage, all three clearly saw a dark figure standing beside a stone wall outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They walked away rapidly as the figure appeared decidedly menacing, but they were horrified to see the figure following them as if in pursuit. It stopped at intervals down the mountain slope and did not disappear from view until they reached the roadway.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Asked to describe the figure in more detail, Paula said it was about six feet tall in the shape of a man although it was not possible to make out any discernible features.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it looked ‘solid’ despite being without positive features and it made no sound whatsoever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She added that there was no question that the figure could have been a human being; for one thing they noticed that it cast no shadow despite the bright moonlight, and on the first occasion they had actually seen it disappear.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">From a psychic point of view, there obviously arises the question as to what the nature of the entity was, and whether it was really 'intelligently malign' as described, or whether it was merely some earthbound phantom taken out of all context from a relatively innocuous appearance.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">For it is sometimes the case, that relatively harmless phenomena are judged to be entities having some terrible intent, when in reality, they might only be reflections of some past event, shadows or unintelligent pictures that might be witnessed by the human senses.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">This would otherwise help to establish if some<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'intelligent' force or being lurked - indeed, still lurks - within the confines of the cottage or if this was merely just an unintelligent picture of some long forgotten past event capable of being witnessed spasmodically who happened to be in the vicinity at a given time.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Intrigued by these accounts of the ghostly figure, it was decided to conduct a nightly vigil at Blackbird Cottage to see if some contact could be made with the entity. Members of the British Psychic and Occult Society conducted this vigil in March 1985, and also present were Paula and Jemima, occult medium Colette Sully and the author.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">From the onset, it was impossible not to be aware of the distinctively cold temperature inside the cottage<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(which was well below that of outside) and an almost uncanny atmosphere of 'trapped isolation’ that seemed desperately alien to the world outside.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A small fire was lit in a derelict fireplace fuelled by gathered logs and everyone settled down to await developments.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">For almost an hour everything was quiet, but then a distinct change came over the atmosphere and a<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'heavy tension' descended on the room whilst simultaneously a fleeting figure was seen in the doorway, similar to a movement caught quickly from the corner of the eye before having been brought properly into focus; although this had occurred in most peoples' direct line of vision. Only seconds after this, the cottage was illumined by a bright white light passing overhead that cast eerie shadows through the broken timbers of the roof. Probably, most people present assumed that this was a distant helicopter or reflections from an overhead plane; although strangely, there was no sound accompanying this light.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Almost immediately following this, a loud<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>crashing noise’ came from above and large pieces of bricks and rubble fell down the chimney obliterating the log fire and causing the room to be filled with a dense collection of dislodged soot and smoke. There was also a strange 'breathing sound' that seemed to accompany this; although this could have been that wind howling down the presumably unblocked chimney.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Whatever the cause of this, nobody seemed inclined to investigate further: the prospect of no fire, freezing temperature and torches that made virtually no impact in the dense smoke, persuading everyone present that it would better to postpone the vigil.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">In fact, as it turned out, there would have been no alternative to this decision, for just after leaving the cottage, a local police patrol car arrived and two policemen<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- after having been enlightened for the reason for our presence<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- warned us that, aside from the possibility of trespass - it was unsafe to enter derelict buildings on the mountainside at night. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Pressed about stories and sightings of the black figure, the police confirmed that the cottage was indeed reputedly haunted and, interestingly enough, the conversation led to local reports about mysterious lights in the sky. They said these were numerous, and added that they had seen one only some ten minutes before they approaching the cottage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They would not be drawn further than this, although later enquiries to locals revealed that the two policemen had, not exaggerated the extent these mysterious lights had been officially reported.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, for some reason, local people seemed far more willing to discuss these lights<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(which many referred to as UFO's) than they did to discuss cases of ghosts - probably because they were commonly known and this reduced the risk of potential ridicule.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">From a personal point of view, however, the mysterious lights seen in the sky over Snowdonia<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(in this particular instance, perhaps over the cottage), raised another potential to this investigation ... </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Could it have been a feasible possibility, perhaps, that the light seen momentarily through the cottage 's broken roof, was in some way connected with the appearances of the ghostly figure?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to speculate a step further, was the cottage itself perhaps situated upon an earth energy line (a ley line) along which such lights and other ghostly phenomena had been reported over other parts of the country?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">Following the police intervention at Blackbird Cottage, however, there seemed little point in holding another nightly vigil there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was fairly obvious that the cottage would now be under police observation, not to mention the possibility of a hostile reaction from locals if word of any further nightly vigil came to light.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">But the investigation into Blackbird Cottage had not been entirely without success. We had managed to catalogue what we considered two definite sightings. And, of course, the nightly vigil had also brought limited results - at least, in suggesting the possibility that 'non-worldly’ forces may have been connected with events at the ruin. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">It had not been possible to establish the exact nature or cause of this phenomenon, but what remained of importance was, that we had reasonably established that some psychic force<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>- or 'forces' - were active in and around Blackbird Cottage.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"></span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">_________________</span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">-<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By David Farrant -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="color: white;">President of the British Psychic and Occult Society</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-22649174698989176472011-09-27T20:09:00.000-07:002011-09-27T20:09:13.397-07:00IS DAVID FARRANT INNOCENT - OK?<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 12pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">IS FARRANT INNOCENT - OK?<br />
Or should he abandon the fight?</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></b></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: white;">asks Peter Hounam</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br />
<b><span style="color: white;">DAVID FARRANT IS INNOCENT, OK? That slogan is hardly likely to appear on gas-holders and tower blocks in Haringey because the occult high priest has hardly any supporters willing to carry on a campaign for a re-trial. All the same, David Farrant is as convinced of his innocence as George Davies and determined to clear his name. The odds look stacked against him. The Home Office have already turned down his demand for an appeal. Yet he fights on.<br />
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David Farrant became a public figure (some would say a public menace) in the early 1970s. His witchcraft activities were often in the popular Sunday papers, and the Journal, and gradually his name was linked with more and more bizarre happenings in <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Highgate</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Cemetery</placetype></place>.<br />
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Vampires were sighted and had to be exterminated. Tombs were discovered broken open. There were bizarre ceremonies of exorcism, using naked girls and animal sacrifices.<br />
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For us it made good copy but, not surprisingly, the police felt that Mr. Farrant and his friends were a nuisance. There were numerous attempts to catch him doing something illegal.<br />
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In 1972 and 1973 matters got a little more serious. Groundsmen employed to look after <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Highgate</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Cemetery</placetype></place> found tombs broken open. Bodies in various states of decay were left lying around and one, horrifically, found its way into the passenger seat of a private car parked in <street w:st="on"><address w:st="on">Swains Lane</address></street>.<br />
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Farrant was arrested for this offence and several others and it looked as though the bizarre practices were scotched once and for all. But while Farrant was in jail the activities recommenced. It became clear that Farrant wasn't the only culprit. Could he be right in claiming that he wasn't the culprit at all?<br />
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During the trial, Farrant dispensed with his counsel and carried on defending himself - with some success.<br />
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He faced three charges of interfering with remains in tombs, the most serious being the case of the corpse placed in a car. A further charge suggested he had conspired to damage property in the cemetery between 1971 and 1974. He was accused of sending voodoo effigies to two policemen and thereby trying to influence their actions.<br />
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Farrant was also charged with "unlawfully and maliciously damaging a memorial to the dead" - by chalking a witchcraft symbol on the floor of the vault.<br />
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Two other trifling offences - having his father's service revolver and some sheets from a hospital - were tried at the same time.<br />
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The Old Bailey jury found him not guilty of the corpse-in-the-car offence, another charge concerning interfering with remains, and the conspiracy charge.<br />
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The judge was left to sentence Farrant on the remaining charge of interfering with remains. He got two years.<br />
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Sending voodoo dolls and "frightening" policemen got him two more years.<br />
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Chalking on the floor of a vault was adjudged "damage". Farrant went down on this count for six months. Having his dad's revolver got him one month or a fine - later made concurrent like the six-month chalking offence. <br />
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Having hospital sheets in his flat (Farrant says they belonged to his girl-friend who was allowed to bring them out of the hospital to wash) got him eight months. This was later made concurrent.<br />
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Farrant ended up four years' imprisonment though he was not found guilty of handling any remains.<br />
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I said at the time that the sentences were harsh, and I still think so. Farrant could have appealed against sentence but he wanted to appeal against conviction and this was prevented by one or two key witnesses not being available.<br />
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He argues that only now, when he is free on parole, can he put an appeal case together.<br />
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The charge of chalking on a vault floor allegedly occurred on a specific date. Farrant claimed the markings were already there, when he and a French girl-friend - Martine de Sacy - entered the vault. She has now been found, and an affidavit to the effect that Farrant's story is true has been sent to the Home Office. The Home Office now refuse the appeal because Farrant "admitted" in his trial that he had seen the chalk marks on a previous visit, therefore implying that he could have "damaged" the vault on a previous occasion.<br />
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I find this baffling. The original charge accused him of damaging the floor on a specific date, not on an earlier occasion.<br />
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Farrant believes he could get himself acquitted of the charge of interfering with remains if he could find a freelance journalist named <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">Hutchinson</place></city> who took the picture (right). [This picture with the Hornsey Journal's accompanying caption, has been posted separately below.] Unfortunately he has no address for the man and cannot trace him.<br />
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On the voodoo effigies charge, Farrant would claim that he was provoked into sending them because two policemen had been putting undue pressure on a friend who was literally terrified of the police as a result.<br />
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There are many who would advise David Farrant to give up his campaign. He has served his sentence and is now free so what point is there in trying to change the trial decisions of 1974?<br />
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David Farrant would argue that he was the victim of a calculated police campaign to get him at all costs - on whatever charge they could throw at him.<br />
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The whole involved saga has left him bitter and resentful. He is working almost non-stop to dig up evidence that might give him a new trial and it seems his main purpose in life. Giving up the fight might well be the most logical thing to do, but for David Farrant it would be like giving up witchcraft - unthinkable.</span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="color: white;">Hornsey Journal - August 28th 1976</span></span></b></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-4513054528413625942011-09-27T15:49:00.000-07:002011-09-27T15:49:12.870-07:00THE DEVIL'S NINE STONES<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: white;">THE DEVIL'S NINE STONES</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: white;">There is a secret place that lies almost concealed just yards to the side of the A35 that leads between <place w:st="on">Dorchester</place> and Brigport. Well, it is not really that secret because it is listed as an Ancient Monument, although it is quite difficult to find by car; the almost oblique English Heritage sign heralding it being difficult to spot if you are looking for it from a vehicle. The traffic speeds so mercilessly along this main road that you can be forgiven for missing its marked location upon any map; really, apart from approaching it from secluded footpaths marked upon Ordinance Survey maps, the only other quick way is to trace it from the main road, the location turning out to be literally only a few yards as portrayed on a map. <br />
<br />
This secluded place is marked by an almost hidden ring of a stone Circle known as “The Devil’s Nine Stones” and here, or nearby, the engines of several cars and trucks have mysteriously ‘cut out’ whilst driving past it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There have been quite a few reports of cars and other heavy duty vehicles<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>having their engines mysteriously cutting out as these drove past the site.<br />
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This ancient stone Circle (once you can locate it) consists of nine almost ‘gigantic’ stones plus a few lesser ones) but the feeling within this Circle of stones, almost defies description .. . <br />
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I visited the site one summer’s afternoon in 1994 with other members of the British Psychic and Occult Society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Entering it, it almost appeared cold and oblique, but once finally inside, there was a sense of ‘timelessness’, that almost defied description . . . <br />
<br />
There was a feeling of almost total distraction from the world outside; a feeling (and this is where it is hard to describe) that the place had no normal relationship with reality; there was a ‘strange quietness‘ that seemed to be a secret part of the circle; an ‘esoteric atmosphere’ which was somehow ‘trapped’ by the stones themselves. <br />
<br />
Certainly, when I visited the place in 1994, such an impression was overwhelming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, being remote and almost hidden thus not being easy to track down, the site remains fairly safe from casual vandalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remaining thus so secluded, there is no reason why it should not continue to remain that way for the next few centuries. <br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></span></b></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: white;">David<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Farrant</span></span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-12597679214422244032011-09-22T13:19:00.001-07:002011-09-22T20:20:50.715-07:00The Ghost of Hillcrest <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">This short ghost story (a true one yet again) might be of some interest to people who have followed the stories and reports of a ‘tall ghostly figure’ reported around Highgate over the years.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">This case was personally investigated by myself and I have no personal doubts about the validity of the events described to me.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Like most cases, they are, of course, open to individual interpretation. I can only report the facts as I found them and as these were relayed to me.</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Anyway, enjoy it . . .</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">David</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt;">The Ghost of Hillcrest</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span lang="EN-GB">"HILLCREST" IN HIGHGATE,</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"> lies barely less than a quarter of a mile from London's famous Highgate Cemetery.<b> </b>No 'blood-sucking vampires' here, but for some time this leafy council estate has been associated with stories of a ghost and other supernatural happenings.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Constructed upon the site of a Victorian Convent called St. Mary Magdalene (which was demolished in the late 1930's), personalised accounts of 'ghostly goings-on' have come from several different residents, but a common story tells of a tall black man with an 'evil countenance' who appears in the grounds and then disappears. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Alexander House is one particular block of flats on the estate where a series of inexplicable happenings have been especially potent, and these have been witnessed by people in at least three different flats.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> One of these people is Mrs Betty Goodchild, who is still in residence at Alexander House. She is convinced that some sinister force or 'presence' haunts her downstairs flat where she has lived with her husband John and three children, Jan, John and Robert, for 29 years. Her story is intriguing, and categorises a mysterious series of events that are perhaps unique in terms of frequency and intensity.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Things really began to happen after the family took up residence there in 1970, although at first, there were no blatant sign to suggest a ghost; rather that, Betty Goodchild would often receive a strong mental impression of 'not being alone' when she was sitting up reading in the front room in the early hours (as was her habit) and the rest of the family were asleep. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">She recalls that it was quite a common occurrence for her to be engrossed in a book, and suddenly receiving an overwhelming impression that somebody had 'walked by' and opened a door in the corridor. So great was this impression that she always got up to look but invariably there was no one there and no sign of anything being disturbed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> But soon after this, the existence of some 'nocturnal presence' seemed to be confirmed. Frequently both her and her husband were woken up by 'something' sitting on the edge of the bed. At the same time, there was an overbearing scent of wall flowers in the room. Then, the light in the corridor would momentarily fade as if somebody had left the room and obscured the light as 'they' passed through the door. Also on several occasions at precisely 2 a.m., John Goodchild was awoken by the sound of a low whispering sound echoing around the flat. He eventually traced the main source of this to the darkened front room, but it always abruptly stopped when he entered and switched on the light, and there was nothing to account for the eerie murmuring. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> At first, these incidents did not unduly alarm the Betty or John Goodchild having concluded that their flat was haunted by a relatively harmless ghost, but as time progressed, ghostly occurrences increased to the point of becoming decidedly unpleasant. Events reached a climax in the late 1970's and by then, the children had began to seriously suffer the effects.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Most sensitive to this 'presence' was their youngest son Robert, who frequently experienced vivid nightmares about 'something horrible' that came into his room. In the end, these became so realistic that he refused to sleep in his bedroom under any circumstances. But his brother and sister, John and Jan, were also convinced about the existence of some presence in the flat. Jan, in particular, often heard 'breathing' in the front room at night and once, she saw a dark form which glided along the corridor.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> But it was a little later that this ghostly activity really took a turn for the worst, and had a dramatic effect upon the whole family . . .</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Perhaps most chilling, was the piteous sound of a baby wailing in the front room; these cries at first penetrating but gradually fading out. This happened on three separate occasion and on each one just preceded the deaths of three residents on the estate.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB">Around this time, an equally frightening occurrence took place that seemed to suggest that the ‘incumbent entity’ was malevolent by nature.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> One evening around midnight, Jan and Robert burst into the from front room where their parents were sitting after having been awoken by ‘something’ in their bedrooms. Frightened and upset, they explained that their rooms had turned icy cold and that something menacing, albeit invisible, had deliberately woken them up.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> With almost calculated precision, just as they were talking, the front room itself turned icy cold and their pet cat, Elsa, suddenly rushed across the room with its back arched and began to spit at 'something' in the corner.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Any temporary misgivings their parents might have had about this encounter, had now disappeared; indeed, it was now apparent that whatever it was that had visited them in their bedrooms, had now followed them into the front room. All could now sense an extremely unpleasant presence that seemed to be 'watching' them from its new location in the front room; and it was suffice to make them to stay up together for the rest of the night until welcome glimmers of daylight seemed to mark 'its' departure.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> It would seem from this particular occurrence - indeed, from the ones that preceded it - that some malevolent form of psychic energy had definitely attached itself to the Goodchild's or their flat; although further research into this matter revealed that this presence or 'entity' might not be operating on an entirely 'personal basis' and that similar instances had occurred which were not confined - or seemingly directly connected - to the Goodchild's or their flat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.3in;"><span lang="EN-GB">A lady resident in a flat opposite, for example, had also experienced a series of unaccountable happenings in her home around this time that convinced her that some 'nocturnal presence' was wandering around her flat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Again, in another flat in the block upstairs, a young girl would wake up screaming after having been confronted by 'some man' in her bedroom. Again, drastic drops in temperature often accompanied these 'visitations', and the same 'sinister' - if not overbearing - atmosphere was present that had so much unnerved the Goodchild's.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Ghostly manifestations at the Goodchild's flat, however, were nowhere near conclusion …</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> One night John Goodchild was awoken by a loud crash in the front living room and on investigation discovered a picture, which he had only just framed, had fallen to the floor. The glass had broken, but closer examination revealed that the brass-stranded wire at the back had snapped in the middle, although the nails on the wall and the eye hooks that supported the picture were all intact. The point is, of course, that some considerable force would have been needed to break the wire in such a manner. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> But if any further evidence about a 'nightly visitant' to the flat were needed, it was soon forthcoming. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> In 1980, the Goodchild's little grand daughter, then just a few months old, would frequently stare intently at 'something' near the ceiling in the front room and follow this with her eyes as it apparently moved around the room. The child did not seem frightened by whatever it was she could see, but was rather absorbed by 'it' to the extent of losing interest in all her other surroundings. This happened on numerous occasions until she reached the age of three, and a particular photograph taken at the time (which was personally examined by the author) indeed shows the little girl gazing intently at something unseen in the air.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> In the early eighties, yet another bizarre series of events started up at the flat.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> On several occasions, again at exactly 2 a.m. in the morning, the doorbell would mysteriously ring but there was never anybody at the door or any sign that this could have been caused by any human agency. This happened so frequently at this period, in fact, that eventually John Goodchild removed the batteries from the bell each night before going to bed to prevent any further disturbances. It perhaps came as no surprise (taking into account the lack of any plausible explanation to account for previous disturbances) that the bell still continued to ring on its own accord - even after the batteries has been taken out.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Today, many strange events still continue to occur at the Goodchild's flat; indeed, ghostly occurrences seem to have become an integral part of Hillcrest's history, and are not even confined to Alexander House.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> In fact, reports of a ghostly figure seen in the grounds at Hillcrest are frequent, and only recently, a group of children playing in the spacious grounds, insisted that they had seen a tall grey figure gliding along the ground. This disappeared through the walls of another block of flats next to Alexander House causing them all to flee in terror. There have been similar reports about this ghostly figure; sometimes described as featureless man in old fashioned dress who confronts residents in the grounds at night and glides away to disappear into the darkness.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> It would appear, from the numerous accounts of several witnesses, that some supernatural entity or 'presence' roams the grounds of Hillcrest; if not being decidedly active at Alexander House.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Of course sceptics will probably proffer the usual arguments about witnesses being over-imaginative or mistaken, but as far as it has been possible to tell, none of these ghostly manifestations has ever been explained by any natural explanation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB"> But material explanations aside it does remain a fact that, before its demolition, the old Victorian Convent of St. Mary Magdalene, once cared for the welfare of unmarried mothers (a 'social sin' in days bygone we should remember) and not so long ago - during the course of building work - it was discovered that a small burial ground attached to this Covent, lay right beneath the foundations of Alexander House.</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-GB">© David Farrant</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: right;"><span lang="EN-GB">[This chapter first appeared in the 2<sup>nd</sup> revised edition of David Farrant’s book “Dark Journey” published in 2004] </span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: right;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-14338898942854335272011-09-17T11:16:00.000-07:002011-09-17T11:16:35.574-07:00THE GHOSTS IN BLUE UNIFORM<div style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">EVENING NEWS, Wednesday 1, 1972<br />
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The 'ghosts' in blue uniform . . . <br />
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AN EERIE mist swirled around the gravestones as a white magician summoned the ghost of Pirate Tom Walmsley.<br />
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Standing expectantly inside a magic white circle, the magician waited for a spirit to appear through the smoke of two small fires.<br />
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Then, suddenly, on the stroke of midnight, mysterious shapes began tp emerge.<br />
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The "ghost" had arrived . . . dressed in blue uniform. It quickly challenged magician David Farrant and his pretty assistant Victoria Jervis with down-to-earth words.<br />
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For the spine-chilling guest, turned out to be a very solid police sergeant accompanied by a constable.<br />
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They marched up to the magician and arrested him.<br />
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The couple, together with a plastic bag of bottles containing potions and mixtures, were taken to Barnet Police Station after a night of Hallowe'en magic at the ancient church of St. Mary, Monken Hadley. <br />
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Sergeant Ernest Bernthal said: "Call me psychic if you want, but I knew there was something psychic in the air."<br />
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Farrant, 33-year-old President of the British Psychic and Occult Society, explained . . . "The ghost of Wallmsley the Pirate comes out twice a year - on Hallowe'en and Christmas Eve."<br />
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" All I want to do is summon him, and speak to him and find out why he only appears twice a year."<br />
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It was not the first time Magician Farrant had summoned spirits from their graves.<br />
<br />
Farrant, of Archway Road, Barnet and Miss Jervis were later charged under the 1860 Ecclesiastical Court Law with acting in an indecent manner in a churchyard.<br />
<br />
They will appear court next Wednesday.</span></div><div><span style="color: #0000cc;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qEcCwefO0TM/TnTjUmXOIEI/AAAAAAAAAF8/GMxG2fmOacM/s1600/Untitled-93+Monken+Hadley.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="505" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qEcCwefO0TM/TnTjUmXOIEI/AAAAAAAAAF8/GMxG2fmOacM/s640/Untitled-93+Monken+Hadley.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><div><span style="color: #0000cc;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-29551172072858564412011-09-17T05:20:00.000-07:002011-09-17T06:07:02.755-07:00THE BLACK HISTORY OF HIGHGATE<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="color: white;">As this article is my copyright and because, in a way, it compliments my previous one here (VAMPIRES FACT OR FICTION?) on the Highgate 'vampire' case, I thought I would post it up for the sake of anybody interested. Any followers of the Highgate 'vampire' case, may care to note that I was warning people about the dangers of getting involved in Satanism some two years before my notorious 'witchcraft trial' at the Old Bailey in 1974.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: white;">THE BLACK HISTORY OF HIGHGATE</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">Has the Stone cast its magic spell?</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: center; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">-<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;">by - </span></b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">David Farrant</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;">AMONG THE MANY LEGENDS<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that surround Old Highgate and Hampstead, there is an old belief that if Whittington's Stone is ever removed (from the original spot where Dick Whittington "turned once more" toward <place w:st="on"><city w:st="on">London</city></place>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or if any harm should befall it, great change and disaster will fall upon the neighbouring area.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, this myth is probably based upon the fact that the Stone is one of Highgate's oldest landmarks,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and therefore,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it would naturally be bad luck to remove it,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but if the present mania for </span><span style="color: white;">redevelopment continues,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this old assumption could well prove to be correct.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For already the giant bulldozers have left their ugly mark on much of Archway and are now advancing up the Archway Road, and it seems inevitable that Highgate, too,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is destined to suffer at the unmerciful hands of progress.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps</span> the most disturbing aspect is that Highgate,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>one of the oldest and least unspoiled parts of London,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>will lose not only its status,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but also a great deal<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of its character.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For when an environment is destroyed the legends and myths associated with it are also affected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And throughout its history,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Highgate has been linked with superstition and legends,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>many of which pertain to a supernatural origin.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: white;">EVIDENCE </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these legends have survived from the days when Highgate served as an important relay point for coaches on the Great North Road,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and it was this era that gave birth to the many and assorted tales of the highwayman and also witnessed the great revival in occultism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But a much "blacker" part of Highgate's history were the events of 1665,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when it was used as a mass burial ground for the victims of the Great Plague.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were brought by the cart-load from <city w:st="on"><place w:st="on">London</place></city> and buried in deep lime-filled pits in the place which is now Queens Wood.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To go back even further there is now sufficient evidence (following recent excavations in Highgate Wood) to be certain that Highgate was once the site of a large Roman community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as the Romans tended to improve and develop already existing settlements rather than starting from scratch, it was probably inhabited by pre-Druid races long before that.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether or not the present day planners will follow the Roman example to improve only where necessary is debatable,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>although it seems more likely that the speed and convenience of the motor car will take precedence over preserving sentimentality.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while Highgate waits patiently to await its impending doom, nearby fashionable Hampstead enjoys a slightly longer lease of life.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hampstead,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>with its many trends,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>also has its share of legends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most famous of these is undoubtedly the "Headless Horseman" who rides noiselessly across a moonlit Heath.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reputed to be the ghost of Dick Turpin,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>this eerie figure and his horse can be seen galloping past the Spaniards' <place w:st="on">Inn</place> and Jack Straw's Castle - presumably in the same vicinity where he waylaid stage coaches so long ago.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The countless reports of desecration in <place w:st="on"><placename w:st="on">Highgate</placename> <placetype w:st="on">Cemetery</placetype></place> have also caused much concern lately.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the cemetery has been used occasionally for the purpose of conducting ceremonies, it has now become a haven for the black magician who requires ancient relics for use </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;">in his rituals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These vary according to the purpose for which they are needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coffin handles and ornaments are the most common target,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but sometimes cremation urns or even skulls are removed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No doubt numerous incidents where coffins have been smashed open or gravestones knocked over can be attributed just to sheer vandalism;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but the planned and precise method employed in other cases in obtaining these relics seems to imply that here the purpose is of a more sinister nature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the fact that the valuable lead inside the coffins is often left untouched,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rules out plunder or theft as a motive.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is hardly surprising that the public feeling which has arisen as a result of these occurrences has been one of anger and indignation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet, indirectly, it is the public themselves who have helped to exaggerate the fearful image that prevails<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>about magic - both black and white.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though in the case of black magic this image is undoubtedly well deserved,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is only too often that the actions of the white witches are being confused with the continuing practices of Satanic cults.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a result of this misinterpretation,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>fact has become mingled with fantasy,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and magic,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>witchcraft and supernatural phenomena have become so entangled together that only an expert could distinguish between them.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with most aspects involved in ritual magic,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>perhaps the one which is least understood is the use of sex in many of the rituals.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>before it is possible to understand this,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it must be realised that such sexual activity is of a highly organised form,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and not - as is so often imagined - merely an excuse for promiscuity or what the public would like to think is a mass orgy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There can be no doubt,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>however,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that the association of sex with magic has presented a perfect opportunity for would-be participants to satisfy their own personal desires under the guise of a magical ceremony.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes sex is included only in symbolic form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet apart from the varying degrees in which it is used,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sexual practice plays a vital part in the magical mysteries,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and although some groups strongly protest and deny that sex is ever used in their ceremonies, the origin of sex in ritual dates back too far to be dismissed as a fabrication.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: white;">DECEITFUL:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'Menace of Satanism is very real indeed.'</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the most disturbing feature is the way the relatively harmless rites of white magic are assumed to be one and the same as the more sinister and diabolic rites of the Black Mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For although these may appear similar in the overall effect,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they are as far apart as the "good" and "evil" which they themselves represent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As with everything else practised in the Black Mass,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>sex is included only to be abused.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More serious still is the way their "devilish doctrines" spread amongst the innocent members of the community,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>frightening and misleading the gullible and corrupting the weak-minded.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Satanism,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>too,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has its priests and its adherents,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but unlike Christianity,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>they proclaim their belief in a deceitful way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is not always obvious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the Bible sums this up best when it says: "Be sober,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be vigilant;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>because your adversary the devil,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>as a roaring lion, walketh about,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>seeking whom he may devour."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1 Peter 5 verse 8).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cases of Satanic corruption are by no means rare,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and frequently priests or leading exorcists of the church are called upon to cast out the devils that have possessed some unfortunate person, the most common way being for the priest to place his hands upon the head of the sufferer,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>recite the appropriate prayers and command the evil spirit to take leave of its victim.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>however,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it will be too late,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and the only reward to face would-be repenters is to "reap their rewards from the seeds they have sown" - or possible confinement in a mental institution.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is the young, with their tendency to think they are invulnerable, who are the most prone to the evil influences of Satanism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The tragic thing is that many young people, attracted by sexual promise or a dare-devil instinct,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are quite unaware of the hidden dangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently they dabble on the surface and are soon dragged down to become hopelessly entangled in a web of corruption from which there is virtually no escape.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet surprisingly enough,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the majority of the general public still live in complete ignorance of this dangerous religion, and know nothing more about it than the lurid descriptions they have read either in the press of paperback horror stories.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>while the press does its best to relate the more sensational aspects of black magic,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the relevant more frightening aspects remain unpublished.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Witchcraft,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>nevertheless,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>prevails;<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and in spite of the charlatans who merely make use of its commercial aspects,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the numbers of its true believers are increasing rapidly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For beneath the paraphernalia that engulfs modern witchcraft,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there lies a deep inner meaning and purpose which no charlatan could possibly hope to understand.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: white;">FANTASY </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while this is true of white magic,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>it is equally applicable to black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Admittedly,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>its motivations are of a different nature,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>but black magic too has its inner teachings,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>however warped or sacrilegious they may be.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So before we dismiss the belief in black magic as sheer fantasy which only takes place in a Dennis Wheatley novel,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>perhaps it would be as well to remember that the Christian Church herself accepts the extent of its widespread existence, and warns us accordingly - as a part of her doctrine - of the imminent dangers of becoming involved.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reason for this intervention by the Church where black magic is concerned is not without foundation,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and her subsequent warning is applicable to everyone - whatever their beliefs.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;">Yet perhaps the real problem that arises from the existence of black magic is the minority of people who,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>although they possess no real knowledge of Satanism,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>adapt its fundamental beliefs to suit their own ideals.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus it is the hoaxers and the dabblers,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who continue to scratch the surface of black magic and use its connotations superficially to gain publicity or for commercial gain,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>who are serving to conceal its real menace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And that menace is a very real menace indeed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[This article first appeared in the ISLINGTON GAZETTE on </span><span style="color: white;">September 29<sup>th</sup><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>1972]</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: white;"><br />
</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="color: white;">©<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>David Farrant</span></div><div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: right;"><br />
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</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-63567092576980662252011-09-15T16:11:00.000-07:002011-09-15T17:46:43.162-07:00Vampires – Fact or Fiction ? <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">HIGHGATE</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> CEMETERY</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> - a rapidly decaying relic of Victorian architecture - has now become the centre of the growing interest in the occult sciences. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">First reported in the Press in 1970, the now almost legendary vampire of Highgate Cemetery started the trickle of interest, which has now become a flood. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">On the eve of Sabbaths in the occult calendar, hundreds of people gather outside the gates of the cemetery to catch a glimpse of the "vampire". For the last two Hallowe'ens’ police have been called to control the mob that forms at midnight. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Many local people have reported seeing the "vampire", several of whom wrote to the local Press describing their experience. The British Occult Society decided to investigate after I had witnessed the phenomenon on two occasions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">The investigation was carried out to a strict schedule for a period of six months, during which there was always at least one member of the society watching in the cemetery. The parts we concentrated on mainly were the Columbarium ((a sunken circle of tombs) and an area close to the top gate where the sightings had been most frequent. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">As you can imagine, a thorough investigation of this type in a cemetery is not an easy matter. Every vigil carried out by the society met with obstacles whether it were Satanic worshippers, vandals or the police. I have been arrested twice although fortunately I was able to clear my name by proving that I was a genuine occultist. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Not all our investigations, however, have been entirely unsuccessful and as a result of our findings I have no doubt in my mind as to the existence of the "vampire-like creature" which haunts the cemetery. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">POPULAR </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I think at this stage it is important to explain a very important factor, that being the actual definition of a "vampire". In so doing perhaps I can remove the element of ignorance from the minds of the many sceptical people who regard vampires among the absurdities of the supernatural. Indeed, with the true facts buried deep beneath so much fallacy and exaggeration, it is hardly surprising the truth has been lost amongst the legends of the misty past. So in order to be able to draw any sort of accurate conclusion, one has to go to the heart of the legend. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There is no doubt, however, that legend is based originally on fact however misdirected and exaggerated it may have become through the centuries. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">But it was during the 19th century that the vampire made its impact. In 1847 "Varney the Vampire" (a novel by Thomas Priest) became so popular that it was reprinted many times, before it was finally over-ridden by Bram Stoker's "Dracula" - written with all its Victorian authenticity - that has given birth to the vampire as we know it today. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It is the Dracula of this book which makes the vampire seem like a "fanged blood-sucking beast" which has escaped from a Hammer horror film: but this is not a fair conception. At least not quite. Although it would be untrue to say there is no connection between the two; there can be no doubt that by becoming commercialised the vampire has lost much of its original authenticity. This is a pity becomes even more difficult to separate fact from fact, or fiction from legend. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">LEGEND</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">By this it must not be presumed that the legend has originated from the book. The book has originated from the legend. It is even likely - in an uncanny way - that the Highgate phenomena inspired Stoker in the writing of "Dracula." (It is interesting to note that Stoker makes direct reference to Highgate Cemetery as one of the resting places of one of Dracula's disciples.) From this an interesting point arises. Was Stoker's knowledge derived from ancient myth, or was he too that perhaps something of this kind was in existence? It is unlikely that we shall ever known, but if the latter is true, it could provide an interesting clue to the present phenomena. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">One thing is certain however, and this is the actual legend has been in existence long before it came to light in the 19th century. The actual date is not clear, but references is made to vampirism as early as the Medieval era. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Although there is no evidence to substantiate that the Highgate vampire is recorded as far back as this, there are too many reports to ignore its authenticity. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">One of these came to light as recently as 1971 when a young girl claims she was actually attacked by "something" in the lane outside the cemetery. She was returning home in the early hours of one morning when she was suddenly thrown to the ground with tremendous force by a "tall black figure with a deathly white face." At that moment a car stopped to help her and the figure "vanished" in the glare of the headlamps. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">She was taken to the police station in a state of shock, luckily only suffering abrasions to her arms and legs. The police immediately made a thorough search of the area , but could offer no explanation to the incident. More mysterious still was the fact that where the figure "vanished", the road was lined by 12ft walls. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">HYPNOTISED</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Another interesting case is that of the man who was "hypnotised" by "something" in the cemetery. He had gone into the cemetery one evening to "look around," and as the light began to rapidly fade he decided to leave, but became hopelessly lost. Not being a superstitious person he walked calmly around looking for the gate when suddenly he became aware of something behind him. Swinging around he became "hypnotised with fear" at the tall dark spectre which was confronting him. So great was the intensity of his fear that he stood motionless for several minutes after the spectre had vanished. He later recalled that it was almost as if he had been paralysed with fear by some force. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">There have been many reports such as this all describing "the tall black figure with a death-like countenance." Unfortunately, these are too numerous to describe in detail, but I myself, having witnessed the phenomena, have no doubts as to their authenticity. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">However, it is not only the possible existence of the vampire which has caused such controversy lately. Satanic worshipping and desecration are increasing at an alarming rate. Graves are violated and remains are used as emblems in black magic ceremonies. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Recently the charred body of a woman was found headless impaled by a stake. It had been used in such a ceremony. The fact that it was found by two schoolgirls makes the incident even more gruesome. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">In a part of the cemetery - which I am not prepared to disclose - Satanic Masses regularly take place and have been observed by myself and other members of the British Occult Society. The people concerned are not youngsters "out for kicks", but genuine Satanists who take part in bizarre rites, and include sexual practice as part of their worship. It would be wrong to mistake their rite for harmless orgies. They are, on the contrary, using this tremendous sexual power - generated by many people - to direct and help them in the practice of their magic. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Although the motive is not clear, their main aim seems to be invoking certain spirits to establish contact with the devil. There is also some likelihood of their being responsible for - or having some connection with - the frequent sighting of the vampire. Unfortunately, lack of evidence prevents me from commenting further on this at present. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Being an occultist, it is only my job to present the facts as we have found them, and not to bias people with my own personal opinions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I think at this stage however, I should make some comment regarding my own position in the occult. As I have been the subject of much publicity lately, I, together with my associates have come to be regarded as "mysterious". The "Sunday People's" recent reference to me as a "white witch" and "vampire hunter" has only served to increase this "aura of mystery" which surrounds us, and subsequently we are made scape-goats for any unexplained occurrences in the district. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It is true that I am the founder of a magical society, and our activities do involve our going to Highgate cemetery, but we are in no way connected with the black magic which is practised there. Our Society is well-versed in many forms of white magic - including Kabbalistic - but we (and indeed all the witches I know) would never break our code and use this for an evil purpose. the rites and ceremonies, however, must remain a secret as they have done through the ages - for to betray these secrets would be to violate a sacred oath. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">I am constantly having to protect our beliefs and justify our actions in to disbelieving authorities. In the midst of such scepticism it is hardly surprising that the public in its ignorance has come to regard us with suspicion. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">HOAXING </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Our investigations, however, will continue. The vampire has become sensational, and the more sensational it is, the more difficult it becomes to differentiate between actual happening, the possibility of there being a logical explanation or hoaxing. The Loch Ness Monster can be taken as a typical example of this. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">It really is impossible to draw a line between relevant aspects, and what is just sheer fantasy. One thing is certain, however, there have been so man sightings and authentic reports (which cannot all be dismissed as wishful thinking), that there must lurk an element of truth. It is for this that we search. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: black; color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">NB Exclusive copyright David Farrant. This article first appeared in the <i>Camden Journal </i>on May 5th 1972, a (then) sister paper of the <i>Hornsey Journal</i>. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-23186725851231885472011-09-09T20:49:00.000-07:002011-09-09T20:49:20.205-07:00SOME CLASSIC PRESS<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style>
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</style> <![endif]--> <div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">THE BARNET & WHETSTONE PRESS, <br />
November 4, 1993<br />
Hallowe'en séance with pop world celebrities<br />
<br />
AROUND 100 believers in the paranormal, including a number of famous people from the pop world, crammed into a Barnet living room on Sunday to talk to their deceased relatives during a Hallowe'en séance.<br />
The British Psychic and Occult Society, which is based in High Barnet - but at a location which is kept a closely-guarded secret - holds the séance every year on Hallowe'en at a house that dates back to the 17th century.<br />
An elderly Barnet woman, who has hosted the event for the last 20 years, invites guests who are not members of the society to make a request to speak to deceased relatives or friends.<br />
David Farrant, the society' president who lives in Highgate, said this year's Hallowe'en was particularly special for Occult Society members, as there had been a full moon the previous day.<br />
"Some celebrities from the pop world attended and wanted to speak to relatives, but we have promised to keep their names confidential. We successfully contacted a number of dead relatives, but most people wanted to know what their future held.<br />
"On Hallowe'en the spiritual world comes its closest to the earthly plane. It is the time when communication between the earthly plane and spirits are at their best."<br />
Mr Farrant first came to prominence during a 1974 court case involving allegations of malicious damage to tombs, exorcism ceremonies and accusations that he removed a corpse from a grave. He was also accused of sending voodoo effigies to a policemen and chalking witchcraft symbols on cemetery floors.<br />
Mr Farrant, a self-confessed white witch, told the Press: "We do not spend Hallowe'en as everyone might expect by holding midnight masses in graveyards. We used to do that, but things have calmed down since a few unfortunate incidents in the past.<br />
It is a special day in the calendar for all believers in the Occult. Many people from across the country and not just Barnet attend the seances, which more often than not are successful in contacting the dead."<br />
He explained that Halloween was the one day in the year when spirits were allowed to roam freely and that is why there is the tradition of pumpkin heads containing candles to ward off evil spirits.<br />
Mr Farrant, who says Barnet is a particular good source of spirits because of the age of many of the buildings, says he doubts the existence of ghosts but says his full-time work now involves giving "restless spirits peace."<br />
"Many people are not usually allowed to take part in our seances but at Hallowe'en there is a chance for people to see what sort of thing the Occult is about."<br />
</span></div><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">LETTERS TO THE EDITOR<br />
<br />
[BARNET PRESS, November 11, 1993]<br />
<br />
Why I sent 'voodoo effigies' to two Barnet detectives<br />
YOUR report last week headlined "Hallowe'en séance with pop world celebrities" was a fair account of the relatively secret activities of the British Psychic and Occult Society. May I clarify a reference in your report concerning myself.<br />
Your report mentions (quite accurately) that back in 1974 I faced allegations (among other things) of "removing a corpse from a grave" and sending voodoo effigies to a policeman".<br />
Regarding the former, whilst indeed facing this charge at the Old Bailey in 1974, I was acquitted of all implications of this offence; the jury accepting my account that this "corpse" (in reality a 150 year skeleton) had been disturbed as part of a continuing influx of vandalism at Highgate Cemetery, and not the prosecution's assertion that this incident had been connected with a black magic ritual.<br />
While it is true that I sent two "voodoo effigies" to two detectives stationed at Barnet during this period. (I never denied sending these, having sent them by recorded delivery and signing two accompanying letters) and was subsequently sentenced to a total of four years imprisonment - two separate sentences of two years which ran concurrent - I have always maintained - which remains the truth - that these effigies were not intended to harm the two detectives in question but to protect another society member whom the police had arrested.<br />
I am presently preparing a new book on ghosts and other unexplained phenomena and would be interested to hear from any readers who may have had any experiences in this respect.<br />
Personal accounts would be preferable, but any local stories or legends relating to this subject, would be most welcome.<br />
<br />
DAVID FARRANT </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-57928865419872705912011-09-07T23:02:00.000-07:002011-09-08T02:40:22.189-07:00GHOSTS LONDON<span lang="EN"> <div align="center">GHOSTS LONDON </div><span style="color: white;">Just a little further North</span><b style="color: white;"> </b><span style="color: white;">from Highgate Cemetery, in the borough of Enfield, a rather gentle ghost story comes from a lady who lives in Bush Hill Park, North London; although at her request she is referred to here only by her first name, Jean. Her story concerns some strange occurrences at her house - a large Edwardian house in Queen Anne's Grove which was built in 1913 - and is 'gentle' because, unlike the Highgate entity, its ghost is neither particularly frightening nor malign.</span><br style="color: white;" /> <div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">In fact, Jean moved into the house in 1980 with her husband and two young children - a baby girl of six months and a little boy aged two - following a family who had lived there for four years. During their tenancy the previous owners had done a certain amount of work to the house, but although the ground floor was nicely decorated, much less attention had been given to the rest of the house; in particular, to the first floor. Here, two bedrooms overlooking the rear had been roughly artexed with their walls painted over, and a small box room at the front bore rather undistinguished wallpaper, but the largest bedroom - the master bedroom - lay with stripped walls, with a yellowing ceiling that appeared to suggest that it had been left in a general state of neglect and disrepair. Jean thought this was unusual - if not somewhat uncanny - because the main bedroom would not have been expected to have been left in such a state.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">But, after moving in, the house was gradually improved and eventually, the master bedroom was completely redecorated.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">During this period, after having initially moved into the house, Jean's husband was kept very busy at work and sometimes did not arrive home until late in the evening. Alone in the house, apart from the children, (and by this time they were usually asleep), Jean soon discovered that it was a common occurrence to hear the sound of 'somebody' moving on the stairs; also the sound of distinct footsteps 'walking' across the first floor landing. Invariably, when she went out to look, the sounds abruptly stopped and subsequent investigation revealed no possible cause for the sounds; certainly the lack of any human agency.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">In fact, these 'footsteps' occurred with increasing regularity, and although by this time she was not really afraid (there was a lack of any 'hostile atmosphere' accompanying the sounds, for example, that might have otherwise suggested that they could pose any possible threat), Jean was more intrigued to discover any explanation that could explain their causation.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">When eventually, she mentioned the matter to her husband, he was less inclined to accept that there could be any 'supernatural explanation' for these persistent sounds; indeed, he pointed out that the house was old and would be prone to such noises, and apart from this, as the house was semi-detached, Jean could well have been hearing the movements of the people next door.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">Such an observation, of course, was not beyond the realms of possibility, but did little to explain why the sounds always stopped abruptly when Jean went out to investigate; or indeed, why they occurred regularly in the same places with such timed persistency. But accepting this as perhaps being the only possible explanation, Jean gradually lost interest in these nocturnal footsteps; at least, she tended to ignore them accepting that the whole thing had some logical explanation and should not be allowed to interfere with her normal family life. Indeed, things eventually 'returned to normal' in the household ... the strange sounds not abating but being accepted as a 'part of everyday life'.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">Then, one day in 1987, Jean was surprised at the door by a visit from a pleasant old lady who explained that, when young, she had been a frequent visitor to the house. She explained that she used to visit some elderly relatives who lived there, and went on to say that she was only visiting the area that day and was anxious to once again see the house. In fact, it transpired that she knew the place well, and could even identify many features in the garden where she recalled she'd spent many happy hours playing as a child.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">Her curiosity aroused, Jean asked this lady about some of the house's history, and was informed that, at the time, one of her relatives had become ill there - eventually becoming bedridden - and it had been necessary to employ a live-in nurse to look after an old lady who needed constant care and attention; the room in which she'd been confined being the master bedroom. But as this old lady was very demanding, she needed her nurse constantly, and her poor companion would frequently be called from her bed to attend her.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">Following this encounter, Jean told the author ... "I then understood that these were the movements that I had heard; the companion coming to and fro along the landing attending the old lady."</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">"Our neighbour opposite confirms that elderly people did occupy the house until it was brought by our predecessors. Maybe they felt stronger manifestations of whatever was happening; maybe that's why they hadn't decorated the master bedroom; perhaps that's why they only stayed in the house for four years ..."</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">Such an observation could indeed be true. Many old houses are capable of harbouring or 'storing' psychic energy which, in turn, is capable of 'trapping' poignant sounds or emotions of the living (even images of the living) and transmitting these far into the future; at least, as long as a specific environment remains intact.</div><div align="justify" style="color: white;"></div><div align="justify" style="color: white;">This is not to imply, of course, that all forms of psychic activity are just 'dead' or unintelligent mental impressions or vibrations that have somehow been 'caught' in the atmosphere to be picked up at some future dates by unsuspecting people (though when this commonly happens, such transmissions - in the form of sound, visual effects or feelings - are invariably interpreted as 'ghosts'); but I would venture to suggest, without expounding on other existent forms of psychic activity, that certainly a large proportion of alleged ghostly phenomena can be safely placed under such a category. </div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;">© David Farrant </div><div align="right"></div></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-57722415191078726822011-09-03T14:09:00.000-07:002011-09-04T06:17:56.818-07:00The Highgate Investigation - Part 4 <style>
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<div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 16pt;">The Reckoning</span></div><span style="color: white;"></span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">ON JUNE 21ST, 1971, several members of a secret Occult Order gathered in Highgate Cemetery to perform one of the most dangerous magical rituals in existence. The motivation for performing this ritual was to counteract the activities of a Satanic Coven who had violated magical Law by evoking a malevolent evil force to execute their own desires; the basic object being to establish psychic 'contact' with the existing phenomenon (or 'vampire') and thereby negate the diabolical power that had been brought into existence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2GdOlcTvNA/TmKVK7llPoI/AAAAAAAAAFs/zX4JA-U-p80/s1600/Cory+Wright+Copyright.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Q2GdOlcTvNA/TmKVK7llPoI/AAAAAAAAAFs/zX4JA-U-p80/s320/Cory+Wright+Copyright.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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</style></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB">Remains of a Satanic ceremony discovered in Highgate Cemetery, in the early 1970s. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB"><br />
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</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB"> Of course, such a task was by no means easy for, in magic, darker forces are most potent when summoned to the earthly plane and may only be revoked by a White magical ritual. Thus in context - and in accordance with magical law - an extreme force of evil may only be counteracted and neutralised by an equivalent force of Good. Any other method - if attempted - would have little effect and, in all probability, would only serve to aggravate an 'opposing evil force'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">For the sake of the uninitiated, and to allay any confusion arising from this point, a few words should be said here to explain the difference between white magic and black magic, and black magic and Satanism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Firstly, it should be understood that magic itself is neither 'black' nor 'white' - it is neutral. Furthermore, magic is only a psychic element through which 'outside' forces may be evoked, not itself active but only a channel through which such forces may be brought into operation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Of course, these supernatural forces which can be summoned as a result of magical techniques are both good and evil (or 'white' and 'black'), but even the definition of these forces is a man-made conception.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Yet this is not to say that magic alone is harmless, for although it may only act as a catalyst in producing an end result, the very nature of its source makes it lethal in the hands of those who don't understand it - rather like a trainee chemist who does not know which chemicals, if mixed together, will cause an explosion.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Therefore, it may be seen that magic is only governed and subsequently labeled by the intentions of those using it. It follows, that a 'black' magician may also be a 'white' one, and vice versa.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">With Satanism, however, it is a slightly different matter. For here, unlike a magician who can harness various types of forces at will and without obligation, a Satanist is dedicated to the continual service and worship of evil powers. And as he cannot retain the neutrality of the magician, (the very doctrines of Satanic belief make this impossible) he becomes bound, or possessed, by the dark forces he has pledged to serve. Thus, unlike black magic, Satanism is a form of religious belief, and because of the doctrines and requirements laid down in its beliefs, it is far more potent and dangerous.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">The communication ritual was performed after taking all these things - and more - into consideration. According to the magical requirements of the ritual, a Circle was constructed on the ground in which were placed various ceremonial items. These included vessels of consecrated water, charcoal and salt, and protective talismans which each member must wear. Different coloured candles were placed at strategic points around the circumference to correspond with the elements of air, fire, earth and water. whilst a small fire burned steadily in the middle. To the North of the Circle a small 'sealed' triangle was cast (also containing a small fire) where the entity would be summoned to appear, and hopefully, be able to 'communicate' with a psychic medium who would be inside the protective Circle.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">When all was prepared, the ritual commenced and was timed so that the vital part would coincide with midnight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">The first part of the ritual was dedicated to the relevant incantations and 'Calls' necessary to summon forth the entity. These magical 'Calls' were made in strict accordance with the form of ritual and served two purposes: to dispel any unwanted elementals which might have hindered the appearance of the entity, and to open a channel of psychic energy through which the entity could later materialise.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">When the preliminary part of the ritual had been completed, the actual evocation to summon the entity then began. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">The intrinsic details regarding this part of the ritual, however, may not be disclosed as this would violate magical secrecy; suffice it is to say that the entity would be magically induced to appear in the triangle where it would have a direct 'psychic line' to communicate with the medium.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">As midnight approached, the medium began to make the Commands for manifestation and almost immediately the Circle turned icy cold as though some warm power had suddenly left it, and the candles went out. Simultaneously, the fire in the triangle was obliterated by a misty smoke and some sinister force seemed to be amidst everyone present. For the next minute or so, nothing happened. There was no wind and it seemed unnaturally silent and the fire in the Circle cast an eerie red glow over everything. Suddenly, the area was full of a dense mist, more intense around the triangle, and in this, scarcely discernible through the haze, was a quivering 'black shape' that seemed to be trying to materialise. The medium spoke aloud, attempting to aid 'its' materialisation and all at once, two eyes could be seen at the top of the moving black form. They were the same eyes that I had witnessed inside the gate, dull red and almost diabolically evil; only this time, they had increased in strength to such a degree that it was like being confronted by some 'living presence'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">A girl present screamed and fainted, but such was the hypnotic power of the entity, that nobody was really conscious of her. There seemed to be a tremendous power emanating from the distinct eyes that was magnified even more by the flickering firelight and it was at this stage that I realised that the entity might be too powerful to control and we would be entrapped in the Circle. The whole thing was like a vivid dream; that you had a complete awareness of what was happening, only with little means of controlling it. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Strangely, (and this was an impression that other members later recalled) there was no sense of imminent 'evil intent' from the entity, it being more an impression that it was trying to 'absorb' you.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Seeing the dangers of prolonging the ritual, without hesitation - although not without some effort - the medium and myself performed a rite of banishment during which the entity promptly vanished.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Yet, notwithstanding the manifestation and urgent dismissal of the entity, the ritual had not been a complete success. For although the entity's materialisation had proved a success and it had been possible to dismiss it, circumstances had not allowed time for a full exorcism and, to this extent, it still remained earthbound.<br />
But the ceremony had established beyond doubt - at least as far as most serious psychic investigators were concerned - that the majority of sightings, and witnessed encounters relating to the Highgate phenomenon, were not entirely without foundation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Unfortunately, however, it was realised that such proof would hardly be acceptable to the hardened sceptic, but we had at least succeeded in establishing that not only did some genuine psychic presence exist at Highgate Cemetery, but had also uncovered valuable information about the nature of the phenomenon and possible aspects that might have primarily caused its existence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Of course, while it could not be irrefutably stated that this 'demonic' entity was the direct result of Satanic activity, it could be reasonably said that Satanic practices had perhaps been the cause of activating some age-old supernatural phenomenon.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Given that the investigation at Highgate Cemetery still remained incomplete - an opinion, shared by most Society members - not long afterwards it was decided to again return to the cemetery with a view to perhaps obtaining some photographic evidence by means of performing another ceremony.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">This though, was never to be. The police, keeping surveillance as a result of continuing vandalism, arrested two members just inside the gates.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: white; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AxwftiJsTCg/TmKVys9HePI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qtzzEdHbhPg/s1600/DF17+-+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AxwftiJsTCg/TmKVys9HePI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qtzzEdHbhPg/s320/DF17+-+2.jpg" width="221" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB"> On this occasion, however, they were released as no offence had been committed but the Press picked up the story the next day (presumably as a result of police information) and more attacks were levelled against the Society's name.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">With the usual precision of Fleet Street, the Society investigation was irrevocably limited to a continuation of clandestine midnight manoeuvres that took place amongst dank decaying tombs inhabited by a 'blood-sucking vampire', whilst the author, in turn, was reduced to some modern-day Van Helsing type vampire hunter.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Ironically, perhaps, concerning the Highgate phenomenon itself, the Press may have for once come closer to the truth than they originally intended. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span lang="EN-GB">Copyright David Farrant</span></div><span style="color: white;"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">[Much of this material has been abridged from the 4th edition of the author's book, "Beyond the Highgate Vampire”</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-21863870338521289362011-09-01T14:12:00.000-07:002011-09-03T13:33:20.111-07:00The Highgate Investigation - Part 3 <style>
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<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Arrest</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">IN AUGUST 1970, there was another development in the Highgate investigation. That month, the body of a woman was dragged from a vault in Highgate Cemetery, staked through the heart, and left lying in the middle of a main pathway. The fact that this was discovered by two schoolgirls made the incident even more gruesome. The Hornsey Journal's reportage of this incident, perhaps also did little to allay the already public growing concern over reports of 'black magic' and vandalism at Highgate Cemetery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Evidence of vandalism at the cemetery was, of course, no new thing. But the element of 'staking the corpse', seemingly as the aftermath of some black magic rite, pointed convincingly to the work of the Satanists and their possible connection with the phenomenon.</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LCK-iH4VBko/TmKM8W9szjI/AAAAAAAAAFc/Au3nH2SzTdw/s1600/Vandalism+HGC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LCK-iH4VBko/TmKM8W9szjI/AAAAAAAAAFc/Au3nH2SzTdw/s320/Vandalism+HGC.jpg" width="226" /></a></div><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Soon afterwards, it was decided to conduct the postponed ritual; the object was to summon the entity, make psychic communication with it and then - if it proved to be malevolent, which seemed an obvious fact - banish it from the earthly plane by conducting an appropriate rite of exorcism. The view was held that, if indeed the author's personal theory was correct, and the Satanic group were in some way responsible for 'controlling' the entity's appearances by means of black magic, such an exorcism would also dispel much of this group's power by negating the evil they had summoned into existence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was almost full moon (three days preceding the full moon and those immediately after being especially favourable for conducting magical ceremonies), and it was decided to hold the seance at midnight on August 17th.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Accordingly, Highgate Cemetery was entered late one night on the appointed date, the purpose basically, to conduct this psychical seance. The place chosen was the 'Thornton spot' as this was secluded and well within the cemetery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">In requirements for this ritual, a large circle was inscribed upon the ground which was adorned by protective symbols and 'sealed' with consecrated water and salt. Some ten feet away from this, where the phenomenon would be summoned to appear, a smaller circle was cast with protective symbols (it had not been overlooked that we were dealing with a particularly lethal form of psychic energy).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">When the preparations were complete, the seance commenced but after only a few minutes, torchlight's could be seen in the distance and there was the muffled sound of human voices. It was the police: still some way off but approaching the back gate of the cemetery. This presented something of a dilemma; for not only was it dangerous - from a psychic point of view - to leave the protective circle once the ceremony had commenced, but there was the very real problem of explaining such clandestine nightly activity and being believed, let alone being understood. Because of this, the psychic paraphernalia was quickly gathered up and respective members headed for different exits in the cemetery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">On a sudden impulse, I made for the back wall, which the police were approaching, thinking it was possible to reach this without being spotted and then scale this further along. After all, this was the easiest way out. But not only that; I knew the people who lived in South Grove whose garden backed onto Highgate Cemetery, and I reasoned it would have been easier to have explained to them than why we’d been in the cemetery than risk possible arrest by the police ‘posse’.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, just by the wall, I was caught by a flashlight and quickly arrested. Luckily, however, the police must have assumed their captive was alone and they made no attempt to look for other people.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps ironically, any concern about being arrested was not so much for fear of having done anything wrong or illegal, but because the seance would be misunderstood and such misapprehension could attract adverse publicity to the investigation and the Society.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">For this reason, the ceremonial paraphernalia I was carrying (which included candles, incense, a wooden cross adorned with protective magical symbols and a small tape-recorder) was quickly discarded in the undergrowth by the back wall hoping this would go unnoticed. Unfortunately, this was discovered and was to form the basis of a police charge of 'being in an enclosed area for an unlawful purpose' - although this 'purpose' was not clarified in the charge itself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">The case came before Magistrate Christopher Lea at Clerkenwell Magistrates' Court two weeks later, although it had to be adjourned as the Detective Sergeant in charge, Neville Brown, had apparently suffered a mild heart attack. In any event, the police were unable to proceed and the case was re-scheduled for September 29th.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">The main evidence put forward to support the charge was that the Defendant had been caught whilst leaving Highgate Cemetery with a cross and 'wooden stake' (this 'wooden stake' was, in fact, merely a pointed piece of wood used with string to cast - or measure out - a magical Circle), his intention (according to the Prosecution) to seek out and destroy the legendary vampire that slept in a coffin in the cemetery. During this process, the Prosecution claimed, coffins would have had to be opened to find the vampire.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Logically, of course, in principle some of this may have been correct, but, due to my reluctance to give details of the seance realising that these would never be understood because of their occult connotations, and my refusal to name members involved in the investigation, the facts had been grossly distorted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was not true, for example, that I had been arrested with just a cross and a 'stake' but the other items I had been carrying had 'mysteriously disappeared' and had not been produced in evidence. Neither was it true that there had been any intention to 'open coffins', but the established link between 'vampires' and coffins had been sufficient to give grounds to this allegation. Ignorance and superstitious assumption - and almost certainly a desire to produce a scapegoat for all the vandalism and desecration at Highgate Cemetery - had done the rest.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">If I had any doubts about the latter these were quickly dispelled when Neville Brown proceed to read out a statement which amounted to a verbal admission by myself to the charge. The crux of this admission was as follows ... </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">At midnight I went with the Cross and the stake to St. Michael's churchyard" [which backs on to Highgate Cemetery] "to look for the vampire. Had the police not arrived when they did my intention was to make my way to the catacombs to search for it. I would have entered the catacombs and inspected the coffins in my search, and upon finding the supernatural being, I would have driven my stake through its heart and then run away.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">How this statement had ended up in this form and in a vernacular totally foreign to that of the author's, perhaps indicates how the whole thing was proceeding. But this notwithstanding, the case was dismissed, the Magistrate (this time Mr. DJ Purcell) accepting a Defence denial of this 'admission' and a further submission that I had already been featured on the television in connection with the investigation; and that, in any event, it was just as akin to 'hunt for vampires' as it was for some people to spend vast sums of money trying to locate the Loch Ness Monster.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">The Magistrate added that there had been no intention to 'damage coffins' and that the cemetery was not an enclosed area in the strict legal sense.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Perhaps not surprisingly, the police were none too pleased at this decision or the publicity the case had attracted; although any publicity had only been forthcoming because they had brought the case to court in the first place and introduced outrageous statements throughout about 'staking vampires' attributed to myself which had no relation to the real facts of the investigation. It is little wonder that such outrageous statements were seized upon by the Popular Press, but the fact that many of these statements found their way into print but were not retracted afterwards when proved to be false by very virtue of my acquittal, (and even today, many of these earlier newspaper accounts lie erroneously on record), merely confirmed that serious psychic investigation could not be entrusted to the understanding of the police, or the Press.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">In fact, some newspapers had a 'hey day' with all this sensationalism and some let their imaginations loose beyond the bounds of credibility. The Daily Express said, for example, that the Society had 'over 100 members looking for vampires all over Europe'! Belief in vampires may well have been prevalent all over Europe in the Middle Ages, as originally stated, but this historical fact was certainly not the immediate concern of the British Psychic and Occult Society!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">With a little more sobriety, although not without a hint of sarcasm, the Baltimore Sun observed that apparently it was 'no longer a crime to hunt vampires in England'.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black;"><div style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">But the publicity brought by the court case made it impossible, at this stage, for the investigation to continue. Attracted by reports of 'vampires', scores of people visited Highgate Cemetery and desecration and vandalism of graves and tombs increased to an alarming degree. People flocked to the cemetery in droves and police were frequently called to evict groups of hooligans or self-professed 'vampire hunters'. Indeed, the situation had become so grave, that on Hallowe'en night, 1970, police literally had to throw a cordon of police cars around Highgate Cemetery to prevent people from entering on the night of the undead.</span></div><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WM5-kPU2pL8/TmKIG__C4RI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/z1P-toBqm1E/s1600/Police+car+HGC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WM5-kPU2pL8/TmKIG__C4RI/AAAAAAAAAFQ/z1P-toBqm1E/s320/Police+car+HGC.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: white;">Police presence was strong around Highgate Cemetery in the ea<span style="color: white;">rly 1970s. Photo copyright BPOS</span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">One small group of aspiring occultists, however, seemed to have evaded the ongoing police presence and claimed to performed a 'secret exorcism' at a tomb in the cemetery that had been desecrated by Satanists; although the only 'evidence' to support this was a photograph that had been sent to the Hornsey Journal showing a man dressed in an evening suit brandishing a crucifix and wearing a 'garlic necklace' posing outside some unrecognisable tomb in the cemetery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Contacting the Society for comment, the Hornsey Journal were informed that we recognised the person concerned as a well known prankster and, if in line with his past record, the whole thing was just a well timed publicity stunt.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unfortunately, a sad side to all this activity at the cemetery, at least, as far as some elements in the police and the media were concerned, was that the Society itself was held directly responsible for influencing its occurrence. This was an especial irony, when I had already stated publicly on several occasions that this sort of activity was to be deplored and had nothing to do with genuine psychic investigation. Indeed, in a article I was to write for a local paper scarcely a year later, I stated that the growing menace of Satanism in general - especially at Highgate Cemetery - was a 'very real menace indeed'. (This article appeared in the Islington Gazette on September 29th, 1972, and in it I also pointed out that it was the young, with their tendency to think they were invulnerable, who were most at risk to the dangers of Satanism. Attracted by some 'dare-devil' instinct to the challenge of Satanism, some would became entrapped in a web of corruption and degradation from which there was usually no escape).</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">But before the publication of this article, BBC Television decided to mount their own investigation and sent a team of cameramen and reporters to see if they could locate the 'vampire'. Although they were unsuccessful, what they did find was a mass of desecrated coffins, many of which had been deprived of their lead. Invited on the programme, I explained that although most of the desecration was the work of vandals, the activities of the Satanic group was a very real problem, as was the existence of the 'vampire-like' entity that had been witnessed there. This programme was televised on October 15th, 1970 and went some way in vindicating my claims that black magic was being practised at Highgate Cemetery.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">But regarding the threats from the Satanic group, they had apparently given up. The threatening letters suddenly ceased and it was likely that - as they saw it - the damage done by the Society in exposing their activities to the public view had already been done and so there was no point in continuing their vendetta.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meanwhile, there was a major development at Highgate Cemetery. Reports were coming into the Society that a young nurse had been 'attacked' by the 'vampire' in Swains Lane which runs alongside the cemetery. Eventually, the girl's identity was discovered and I arranged a meeting with her. Although reluctant to discuss the matter at first, I assured her anonymity and she gave the following account:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">She was returning home in the early hours walking down Swain's Lane. As she passed the cemetery, a little way further on, she was suddenly 'thrown to the ground' with tremendous force by a 'tall black figure' with a 'deathly white face'. At that moment, a car stopped to help her and the figure 'vanished' in the glare of the headlights. She was taken to Highgate Police Station in a state of severe shock suffering abrasions to her knees and elbows. The police immediately made a thorough search of the area but could find no trace of her attacker. More mysterious still was the fact that where the figure had vanished, the cemetery was lined by 15 foot high walls.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">On hearing this, I felt a tinge of apprehension. Until now, the 'vampire's' appearances had been mainly confined to frightening people. It seemed now, however, that the 'creature' was becoming 'bolder' and presented a real threat to innocent people. If it had attacked somebody once, it could do so again. Only next time, with more disastrous consequences.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">It was decided to conduct a full scale ceremony in Highgate Cemetery whereby the phenomenon would be summoned and then banished back to its preordained place of existence.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;">This time, however, the Ceremony would involve the use of High Magic as a means of communicating with the demonic entity. It was not dared to use less than an advanced form of ritual. At least, if the ritual was not successful, it would be possible to control the entity, whereas Low magical techniques - albeit less complex - could not have afforded adequate protection.</span></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">TO BE CONTINUED…</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-6178476796958219182011-08-31T18:12:00.000-07:002011-08-31T18:14:53.116-07:00The Highgate Investigation - Part 2<div style="color: white;">THE NEXT MEETING OF THE BRITISH PSYCHIC AND OCCULT SOCIETY was mainly occupied by arranging an investigation into the Highgate Cemetery affair after it had now been assumed that at least some of the reports might be authentic.</div><div style="color: white;">It was decided that a continuous nightly vigil would take place at the cemetery, two Society members at a time being stationed in turn at the two places where the apparition had been seen to appear. Cameras and tape recorders would be set up, but as yet, no 'psychic means' - such as conducting a seance, for example - would be employed to bring about the entity's materialization. This was because, it was concluded that in the initial stages of the investigation, the gathering of evidence and observation, were of greater importance than any attempt to make direct psychic contact - especially because of the entity's apparently malignant disposition. Instead, the cemetery's history would be checked out; in particular, sightings of any other unusual phenomena in the area that might be in some way connected. Anyone who laid claim to witnessing the entity would be interviewed and statements kept of their accounts. To obtain details of other sightings, it was agreed that a short and 'non-alarmist' letter be sent to a local paper inviting people to tell of any genuine experiences so that any subscribers could be interviewed first hand.</div><div style="color: white;">When the investigation proper began in January 1970, I undertook the task of checking the cemetery's history. Some interesting things came to light ... First, it became apparent that stories of an apparition at Highgate Cemetery had by no means begun with the current sightings. Indeed, similar tales dated back to the Victorian era and, interestingly enough, many of them had 'vampiristic' connotations.</div><div style="color: white;">Perhaps the reason for this was that Stoker himself had possibly been influenced by the existence of 'something' in Highgate Cemetery. When he wrote his unique book Dracula, he makes direct reference to Highgate Cemetery (or at least, an area in the close proximity of Highgate Cemetery) as being the last resting place of one of Count Dracula's disciples.</div><div style="color: white;">Although Stoker may have also been influenced by the eerie case of Elizabeth Siddal who died in 1855 and who was buried in Highgate Cemetery. In 1862, her body was exhumed by a distraught relative anxious to retrieve some poems said to have been buried with her. A witness present, Charles Augustus Howell, described the 'awesome sight' of the undecayed body with 'luxuriant red-gold hair' that 'practically filled the coffin' - the implication being that Elizabeth was 'Undead', or in a state of catalepsy.</div><div style="color: white;">One of the common tales of that time also told of a 'tall man dressed in black' who used to disappear mysteriously through the cemetery wall. It was especially interesting to note the similarity between the Victorian sightings and the present day manifestations - especially as there was approximately 100 years difference between the two. If nothing else, this provided proof that the cemetery had been reputedly haunted for some time.</div><div style="color: white;">But perhaps most interesting was the 'vampire-like element' that had crept into these stories. Although it was difficult to pin-point the reasons or origins from whence the vampire legend came, it had nevertheless become an integral part of the cemetery's supernatural traditions. The Victorians, with their deep-rooted fears of the unknown and self-righteous attitudes towards religion, morals and death, may have contributed towards establishing - or perhaps re-establishing - a legend that was already in existence. </div><div style="color: white;">Whatever the case, it is reasonable to suppose that the Highgate phenomenon could have been connected with stories of vampirism. </div><div style="color: white;">Something obviously gave substance to the original sightings, though whether this 'something' was occult in origin or had a rational explanation that had been dismissed by some superstitious mind, was only debatable. One thing seemed certain, however: whatever formed the foundation of the original sightings, predated the Victorian era. To begin with, Stoker's reference to the immediate area in connection with 'vampires' almost certainly suggests that he was familiar with the local tales by then already in existence. But there was another fact to substantiate this. It dated back to the 15th century when Highgate was used as a mass burial ground for victims of the Great Plague. Highgate was probably chosen for this purpose as it was then an accessible outlying village within convenient range of London; far enough away to reduce the risk of further contamination. These unfortunate victims were brought out in cartloads from the Old City and deposited in an area which is now known as 'Church Yard Bottom', in Highgate's Queen's Wood.</div><div style="color: white;">All this, of course, was no more than historical fact. But what was interesting here was the possibility that the Plague deaths could have been the cause of many stories of vampirism. Basically, these burials were carried out quickly and in bulk and in all probability some people were buried whilst still alive - or in a cataleptic state.</div><div style="color: white;">Yet to return to the present day, the investigation also uncovered another fact of great significance, which alone possibly provided the key the current spate of hauntings. Exploration, and subsequent photographs taken in the cemetery, confirmed beyond doubt that Satanic masses had been taking place there. Furthermore, it became apparent that these masses had been conducted with great professional style (some in a maze of catacombs that ran beneath the cemetery) and were not the work of misguided amateurs.</div><div style="color: white;">One particular tomb hidden deep within the heart of the cemetery (in fact, a small mausoleum with a marble floor but which contained no coffins), had been converted into a small Temple, and, judging from the inverted pentagram and magical symbols inscribed on the floor and walls, was in regular usage. But more significant still, was the fact that the particular magical signs and symbols used, could only be applicable in a Rite dedicated to one of the most malign Deities to rule amongst the Old Kings of Hell and that such a Rite could only be performed by the highest of adepts, for no amateur would be capable of calling forth this Deiform.</div><div style="color: white;">In fact, in accordance with Satanic belief, this entity could only be summoned to the earthly plane if it was to perform some mission, and could not 'return' until that mission had been fulfilled.</div><div style="color: white;">Yet most important here, (and as I stated at the time), the fact that the cemetery was being thus used by dedicated Satanists, might also have a direct bearing on the frequently witnessed spectre. For just as this Deity might be invoked to visible appearance by means of a magical ritual, so might other forms of evil entities that might remain permanently 'earth-bound'.</div><div style="color: white;">It was therefore quite feasible to assume that the cemetery phenomenon was an evil entity that had been summoned up as the direct result of a Satanic ritual or alternatively, that the Satanists had succeeded in 'awakening' the latter-day vampire which had laid dormant for so long.</div><div style="color: white;">Whatever the case, it was evident that the Force (or Forces) being dealt with was malignly supernatural and protective measures may eventually have to be taken to safeguard against psychic attack.</div><div style="color: white;">Such a possibility was not taken lightly, in view of the apparent performance of the entity so far and the added frequency of its appearances.</div><div style="color: white;">Already, just two weeks after the investigation had started, two of the nightly watchers spotted it again on two separate occasions.</div><div style="color: white;">The first time, it appeared behind two Society members on watch at the 'Thornton spot'. Swinging around as if compelled by some over-whelming impulse, they both saw the entity hovering behind, but just as abruptly, it disappeared. Again, two other members saw it through the top gate on their way to keep the nightly vigil. On neither occasion, however, did the entity appear for more than a couple of seconds. It was almost as if it 'knew' it was being hunted down and had no intention of allowing anybody to fire flash-guns at it.</div><div style="color: white;">It should be said here that - contrary to popular belief - some types of supernatural phenomena, albeit not apparently discernable in the normal sense, can be photographed and there was every indication that the Highgate spectre fitted into this category. Although such photographs are rarely taken as credible evidence for the proved existence of ghosts, they would nevertheless have eliminated any logical causation (such as the possibility of hoaxing, for example) that could otherwise have accounted for the sightings.</div><div style="color: white;">But photographs did reveal several more foxes that were discovered dead in the cemetery. Unlike the previous one discovered, however, many of these had deep wounds to the throat.</div><div style="color: white;">There was no direct evidence to link these attacks to stories now circulating about a 'vampire', of course, but it was an interesting speculation (some might say a chilling reminder) to recall that in his book Dracula, Bram Stoker refers to a 'vampiric entity' that wandered in the vicinity of Hampstead at night and was responsible for 'attacking' young children.</div><div style="color: white;">In the meantime, there was a significant response to my letter to the local newspaper, The Hampstead and Highgate Express (Ham and High). This had taken the form of a simple request for information about the reported ghost, and to avoid any frivolous response, I had deliberately omitted any reference to a 'vampire'.</div><div style="color: white;">The week after I had made this request, in fact, four people wrote in to the newspaper all more-or-less confirming the phenomenon's existence. One lady wrote:</div><div style="color: white; text-align: left;"><i>My fiancée and I spotted a most unusual form about a year ago. It just seemed to glide across the path. Although we waited a little while, it did not reappear again. I am glad someone else has spotted it; I was convinced it was not my imagination.</i><br />
<div style="text-align: right;"><i> Audrey Connelly.</i><br />
<i> (Ham and High, February 13th, 1970)</i></div><div style="text-align: right;"><br />
</div></div><div style="color: white;">Another reader confirmed the existence of a ghost at the cemetery but although not having seen it himself, concluded ...</div><div style="color: white;"><i>The ghost will sometimes appear nightly for about a week, and then will not be seen again for perhaps a month. To my knowledge the ghost always takes the form of a pale figure and has been appearing for several years.</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><i>K.Frewin</i><br />
<i> (Ham and High, February 13th, 1970)</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">The Ham and High obviously noticed the local interest in the subject and themselves took up the story inviting other readers to write in and tell of their experiences. Although with typical newspaper sceptism, they warned that they would check the authenticity of all letters received lest anybody attempted to 'spoof them with spooks'.</div><div style="color: white;">Prompted by this invitation, the following weeks brought many more letters from people who claimed to have seen the apparition.</div><div style="color: white;">Wrote one reader:</div><div style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>A figure such as that seen by readers does haunt Highgate Cemetery. I caught sight of it while I was walking around the cemetery. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw something move and immediately looked around to see a 'form' moving behind some gravestones. My first reaction was that it was somebody 'mucking about' but looking back it seems strange that the thing made no sound and seemed to disappear into nowhere.</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><i>D. Winbourne</i><br />
<i> (Ham and High, February 20th, 1970)</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">Another reader expressed great dismay that her house was perhaps situated a little too close to the cemetery and that in view of all the stories, the cemetery entity should be seriously looked into.</div><div style="color: white;">Yet some readers portrayed more than a little sceptcism. One wrote:</div><div style="color: white;">Swain's Lane on a cloudy, windswept moonlit night, with its cemetery, overhanging branches, sparsely-peopled, ill-lit, and rather Gothic, has the same effect on some people as reading a good ghost story, and we all see ghosts after reading ghost stories ...And he concluded:</div><div style="color: white;"><i>... The British Occult Society is to be congratulated on fighting a brave last ditch battle on behalf of the romantics in bringing their 'wampyr' [vampire] out of its dusty covers and presenting it once again for public display, but alas, it is too late, by at least three generations.</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><i> S.Levitt </i><br />
<i>(Ham and High, February 27th, 1970)</i></div><div style="color: white; text-align: right;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">Although some letters contained irrelevant fact, many contained valuable information and by interviewing their subscribers, it was possible to put together a fairly concise record about the nature of the phenomenon and its appearances. Basically, it seemed it usually took the form of a tall dark figure and appeared mainly in an area around the top gate.</div><div style="color: white;">This corresponded more or less exactly with my encounter, and those of Thornton and the old woman.</div><div style="color: white;">The Ham and High, however, seemed especially interested in the 'vampire' possibility and the fact that black magic had been taking place at the cemetery. On March 6th, 1970, they ran a front page story entitled, perhaps appropriately "WHY DO THE FOXES DIE?" The implication was, was that in some manner the 'ghost' was no less than a 'vampire' which had been responsible for the death of the foxes. It was interesting hypothesis, and one which had not been overruled by the author himself. In fact, I held the view that as the phenomenon seemed definitely malevolent by nature, it was quite conceivable that it possessed sufficient power to have some affect upon 'weaker forms of intelligence's' - such as animals. Alternatively, there was the possibility that the foxes had somehow been trapped by the Satanists and used as sacrifices in black magic rituals.</div><div style="color: white;">In reality, the Satanic group that were using Highgate Cemetery hadn't taken kindly to the Society's investigation which had exposed their activities to the public view. The weeks that followed brought a spate of threatening letters to the Society. Essentially, these letters warned that the Society's investigation at the cemetery must be stopped or there would be 'disastrous consequences' - namely, 'death' to be effected by means of black magic.</div><div style="color: white;">A typical letter to the author, read:</div><div style="color: white;"><i>By your interference with the work of our High Order, you have invoked the wrath of Lord Hadit. By His element and the power of the Seven-Fold Cross, you shall now be destroyed. This is decreed by His Grace, and this wish will be fulfilled through our Order. Be it thus so ... </i></div><div style="color: white;">The letter was signed in blood and adorned with satanic symbols; mainly to the effect that I had offended the Satanic god Hadit who, through the media of his worshippers, was about to reek terrible revenge.</div><div style="color: white;">There was no doubt that the sender - or senders - of these letters were genuine Satanists. For one thing, the secret signs which adorned the letters, would only be known to authentic practitioners of the Black Arts. Yet the letters did not cause undue concern. Previous experience by the Society with black magic groups gave us enough confidence to file these letters and forget about them.</div><div style="color: white;">In the meantime, public interest in the Highgate Cemetery affair had attracted the interest of Independent Television. They were preparing a programme on the 'ghost' and invited the author to give an account of the investigation. Initially, this request had to be denied, as Society policy forbade the release of any information to the media about internal investigations unless, or until, these were complete. But I finally agreed to verify my own personal encounter with the phenomenon. This programme was shown on 13th March, 1970 - although it was not filmed without some mishap. When the film crew began filming outside the top gate (they were not given permission to film inside, the cemetery Superintendent, Mr. William Law, explaining that this was 'against regulations'), the camera man suddenly clutched his throat and passed out. The filming had to be postponed until a replacement took over. Sandra Harris, the interviewer, was visibly shaken; more so probably, as she had already witnessed the deplorable damage inside the cemetery. (In fact, whilst she was walking through the cemetery with the film crew and myself a little earlier, we had all witnessed a vandalised coffin that had been removed from an old vault and was lying in the middle of a pathway. Its lid had been ripped off, and the skeleton inside was clearly visible.)</div><div style="color: white;">During the interview, and to avoid any possible sensationalism about 'vampires', I took great care to avoid such a term when referring to the phenomenon. Of course, it was realised that local opinion tended to support a 'vampire theory', but I certainly didn't accept the existence of vampires in their strictly commercialised sense and I had no intention of being misunderstood or misquoted. Another man who was being interviewed, however, (a somewhat theatrical character dressed in undertakers' clothes who had been pestering local newspaper's looking for publicity since he had first become aware of the Society investigation), claimed that the phenomenon was really the 'King Vampire' and, after producing a crucifix and a home-made wooden stake, announced that to destroy a vampire one must ... 'first drive a stake through its heart with one blow, chop off its head with a gravediggers shovel’ and then ‘burn what remains’!</div><div style="color: white;">Of course, this amateurish verbiage would not have been taken seriously by genuine occultists but the situation was made worse when this person went on to claim that ... " 'David Farrant' would be returning to Highgate Cemetery that same evening' to 'perform this dangerous mission." And for further effect, he warned of what he saw as the 'dangerous consequences' facing anyone foolish enough to ‘take on the King Vampire’!</div><div style="color: white;">Although these remarks were obviously intended to create maximum publicity, in reality, they were based on a misunderstanding of a report in the local Press the previous week when, humouring some over-zealous reporter, I had stated that if the apparition at Highgate Cemetery turned out to be anything like a 'vampire', I, for one, would be prepared to take any means necessary so that everybody could 'rest in peace'.</div><div style="color: white;">But to make matters worse, this person's remarks were put over the air, and later that night following the television transmission, several hundred people converged on Highgate Cemetery to witness a non-existent 'vampire hunt'. </div><div style="color: white;">One of these was a school teacher from Essex called Alan Blood (in fact, his real name) who had travelled to London after seeing the programme to take part in the 'vampire hunt'. He had even brought several students with him to join in this quest.</div><div style="color: white;">I was approached by Alan Blood who wanted permission to join in the 'hunt' but I was forced to explain that it was not possible to conduct any serious psychic investigation under the unfavourable conditions created by the television programme (people were flocking to Highgate Cemetery en-masse including groups of hooligans carrying beer cans and makeshift weapons to take on the 'vampire' and who looked as if they could have turned nasty) and that the whole charade had been instigated at my expense.</div><div style="color: white;">Needless to say, no Society members joined in this charade, but the 'hunt' still went ahead, its outcome being reported in the Press the following day.</div><div style="color: white;">The London Evening News reported the situation by saying:</div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;"><i>Nearly 100 people joined in a vampire-hunt at Highgate Cemetery today. They included a vampire expert named Mr. Alan Blood who journeyed 40 miles to investigate this legend of an 'Undead Satan-like being' said to lurk in the area. Spectators gathered in the spooky darkness after watching a TV interview last night, Friday 13th, in which a man said he was going to exorcise an evil spirit he claimed he had seen three times.</i></div><div style="color: white;"><i>Curious onlookers managed to scale the 10 foot wall in search of an open tomb. Several people scrambled back frightened claiming they had seen 'something crawling' in the dark.<br />
Anthony Robinson aged 27 of Ostel Road, Hampstead came to the cemetery after hearing of the torchlight hunt.<br />
"I walked past the place and heard a high pitched noise, then I saw something grey moving slowly across the road. It terrified me.<br />
"First time I couldn't make it out, it looked eerie. I've never believed in anything like this, but now I'm sure there is something evil lurking in Highgate."</i></div><div style="color: white;"><i>The vampire expert, history teacher Alan Blood, 25, travelled from Chelmsford, after he saw David Farrant, 24, speak of his plans to stake the vampire through the heart with a wooden cross.<br />
(Evening News, March 25 1970)</i></div><div style="color: white;"><br />
</div><div style="color: white;">Yet aside from the 'sensational slant' of this article, I remained sceptical about this particular sighting. It was more likely over-wrought imagination combined with a mild form of mass hysteria, had created 'ghosts' where there were none to be seen. There was more concern about the potential effects arising from such publicity for this was bound to attract further vandalism to the cemetery, which in turn, would hamper the investigation proper and upset both the cemetery authorities and the police. Added to this, was as a result of the unsubstantiated ravings made by the person on the television and subsequent coverage of these by the Evening News, 'David Farrant' had been irrevocably branded as the main instigator of this mass vampire hunt and a man who quite literally believed in the existence of 'blood-sucking vampires'.</div><div style="color: white;">Meanwhile, the vigil by the Society at the cemetery continued, although there were no significant developments and the phenomenon was not sighted. It seemed the 'vampire' had not taken kindly to the mass intrusion of its privacy and had 'gone to ground' to avoid further persecution.</div><div style="color: white;">It was therefore decided to carry out the original idea and conduct an occult ceremony at Highgate Cemetery one night in order to summon the entity forth, and possibly, communicate with it. This ceremony was to be conducted with a High Priestess and other members of the Circle, some of whom were members of the British Psychic and Occult Society.</div><div style="color: white;">Unfortunately however, an unforeseen event prevented this planned ceremony from taking place, although it was agreed that another date be set for this at the first available opportunity. . . </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1695238554539697292.post-63478741623169314372011-08-29T14:28:00.000-07:002011-08-29T14:44:01.191-07:00The Highgate Vampire - How It All Began - Part 1<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">LONDON</span><span lang="EN-GB"> 1969, AND WIDE REPORTS WERE COMING INTO the British Psychic and Occult Society concerning a tall black apparition that had been seen lurking among the tombs of London's Highgate Cemetery. Most of these reports were from people who claimed to have been confronted by this apparition which invariably took the form of a tall dark figure and petrified people both in, or passing, the cemetery. Where possible, most of these reports were followed up but unfortunately (as is frequently the case in psychic investigations) many turned out to be vague repetition of local gossip or the result of unqualified rumour. Eventually a man was traced, however, who claimed to have had a first-hand encounter with this phenomenon, although he requested that his name be withheld to avoid his account from being subjected to ridicule. According to this person (referred to here as 'Thornton'), he had been 'hypnotized' by 'something' in the cemetery after he had gone there late one afternoon to look around.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">As the light began to fail he decided to leave, but somehow, he became hopelessly lost. Not being a superstitious person or even believing in the existence of ghosts, he walked calmly around looking for the gate when he suddenly became aware of the presence of something behind him. Swinging around, less than six feet away, he saw a tall dark spectre hovering just above the ground. He found himself transfixed to the spot completely unable to move; drained of energy by some powerful 'hypnotic force' that in a matter of seconds rendered him unconscious to any sense of time or his surroundings. So great was the intensity of this force, that he remained like this for several minutes (or what seemed like several minutes) before the spectre abruptly vanished and he slowly regained his normal faculties.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Recalling the incident afterwards, Thornton said that it was almost as if some force of terribly evil proportions had actually sought him out with the intention of doing serious harm.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">This account was intriguing. Thornton was a sincere and logical person and not the type liable to fantasy or exaggeration. (His profession as an accountant by itself suggested that his interests lay in things of a logical nature.) That he had seen 'something', there seemed little doubt, but what was especially interesting was that he had described the entity as 'seeking him out' and actually trying to cause physical harm; an uncommon occurrence with reports of ghostly confrontations when ghosts themselves are rarely reported as exercising any physical control over their human counterparts. It was a fair conclusion that the phenomenon was definitely malevolent by nature.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Several more people were interviewed in the following weeks, but again, most of these accounts turned out to be second-hand reports or exaggeration of what by now had become an already established rumour.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">An exception to this, however, was one old lady who claimed she had been frightened by a 'tall dark man' who floated at her from within the cemetery gates. She had been walking her dog late one night but as she approached the gates of the cemetery, it started to howl and tried to retreat. She looked up and saw a figure with 'glaring eyes' staring at her. In a matter of seconds, it promptly vanished.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">This account was also entered on the Society's files, but it seemed the next step to obtaining more precise information was to visit Highgate Cemetery in daylight to check the sites of the phenomenon's reputed appearances and perhaps discover some clues that could have otherwise accounted for its presence.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">This visit was made by the author who had taken a personal interest in the case, although it turned out to be disappointing as nothing significant was found that offered any explanation - by way of a hoax or otherwise - for the two sightings.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">I arrived at the cemetery in the morning and spent several hours there. It was the first time I had been there for over two years and the increase in vandalism was immediately apparent. Vaults had been broken open and coffins quite literally smashed apart. One vault near the top gate (although not visible from outside it) was wide open and one could see the remains of a skeleton where it had been wrenched from a coffin. Another vault on the main pathway had been thus entered and one of the coffins inside, set alight. Although this vault had been padlocked and chained, the door was made up of an iron grill and the vandalised coffin was available for all to see. Furthermore, it appeared that virtually no attempt had been made to repair any of the damage.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">A strange thing that was discovered was a freshly dead fox lying in the middle of a main pathway. This was puzzling because there were no outward signs betraying the cause of death, and besides, a wounded animal would usually have crawled away and hidden itself if it sensed impending death. </span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">All this, however, came no nearer to solving the mystery of the black apparition. Indeed, apart from rumour and other unsubstantiated local stories, the only real 'evidence' were the testimonies of just two people, and it seemed the only way to credit their accounts (or discredit them as the case may be) and thereby justify a full investigation, was to spend a night in the cemetery to see if the phenomenon - or whatever it was - could be witnessed. The place where Thornton had been confronted inside the cemetery seemed an appropriate place as it was secluded and there was no risk of being seen by anybody happening by the top gate - the place where the old lady had seen the entity. The date chosen was December 21st - the eve of the winter Solstice and a traditional time (due to the maximum hours of darkness) when potent psychic forces have easy access to the 'earthly plane'. That the entity may be dangerous from a psychic point of view, was a fact not overlooked. But I was confident that previous experiences with potentially malevolent psychic forces would enable me to deal with any such possibility.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Around 11 PM on the proposed night, I set off for the cemetery. It was a bitterly cold night and the surrounding area was deserted. Walking down the narrow lane that ran alongside the cemetery, there was a sudden awareness of some 'alien presence'. This was difficult to define, except in so far as there was a distinct impression of no longer being alone.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Reaching the top gate and preparing to scale this, I decided to wait a couple of minutes with the intention of perhaps noticing some material object through the gate (such as a shadow cast by a tomb-stone or from a tree moving in the wind), that could have otherwise accounted for the old lady's phantom.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Peering through the rusty bars of the gate scrutinizing the pervading darkness, objects near the gate itself lining the pathway, were fairly easy to discern. But after 20 yards or so the path disappeared into impenetrable blackness. Staring into this, perhaps due to some trick of the light, there was a distinct impression of 'something moving'. What appeared one minute to be a definite black shape or shadow, would suddenly alter its form or change in density. The wind moving through the undergrowth was probably the cause of this, but it was equally feasible that this could have been the cause of the 'black apparition' seen by the old woman.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">To the right of the path, some large animal was scurrying through the undergrowth. Then suddenly, something caught my eye and looking up, just inside not 5 yards from the gate and clearly visible, was a tall dark shape.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">Instinctively, my conscious mind rejected this figure as being supernatural. It was more consoling to assume that it was somebody wandering through the cemetery; notwithstanding that the figure appeared to be over seven feet tall. Any immediate doubts were soon dispelled when I saw two reddish eyes meeting my gaze from a 'black mass' at the top of the shape, which I took to be its 'head'. But these eyes were not human, rather reflected some 'alive presence'; they were dull and penetrating like some hungry wolf, although the rest of 'it' had no discernable features, apart from a vague 'human' shape.</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">The whole situation seemed unreal - like some unwanted dream - but with determined effort, I tore my gaze away realising that the entity was malevolent and that I had come under psychic attack. Without warning, the figure then suddenly vanished, and it appeared that for the moment, at least, the entity had retreated . . .</span></span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: white;"> </span></span><br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="color: white; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span lang="EN-GB">TO BE CONTINUED…</span></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0