Day 3 without son

With the boss away there is a cloud of tension building overhead as 'new' bosses vie for authority in an authority less work place. I managed to keep out to the side from the misery rain which fell, but not enough to not feel the coldness it brought. The large overtime job I had on has become an issue. It should have been completed today, but I had been taken off it so many times and even denied the overtime when I offered it, that now half the job sits still as blank sheets. I'd love to think some more overtime is going to be an option for me but I don't think there's enough profit in the job. It's not my worry anyway.     

Thank god it's dinner time. I'm microwaving a pasta sausage thing I made and froze a week ago. I've had no puddings as such while my son's away and it's been difficult. But with the exception of two cookies I've kept sugar away. Coke doesn't count. 

I went for tea at my aunts house which, as usual, had me a tint bit wishing I was staying at home but knowing that afterwards I'd be glad I'd gone. 

We spoke a lot about the paranormal and she niggled me still trying to be more knowledgable than I am even though she's barely done ouija board or used any equipment. I think older people like to maintain the thought that because they have been alive longer than you, that they automatically have learnt more about every subject going. I let it wash over me as best I could. 

Visiting them is like entering a bubble of the same conversations about broken family and the past. It's a bit like having a bath in the same bath water forever. It's bitter sweet basically. But I love them. 

Day 2 without my son part 2

I travelled home as fast as I safely could after my working day. I had my haircut and tried to keep conversation to a minimum. I am fond of the lady who cuts my hair, she's polish. She makes me contemplate meeting a woman again for about the first five minutes of my haircut and then it dissipates. Newly shorn I headed home for a shower and through myself into watching 'Ginger and Rosa' with the beautiful Elle Fanning, but even she couldn't make it less than boring. I followed it up with 'confessions of a superhero' which was better but a little cringeworthy. Then it was time to collate all my existing notes for our PPS historian who is writing a book using some of what we've learnt about Bingley spirits from our previous investigations this year.  So that was another item ticked off the 'to do' list. Next I booted up the laptop to continue writing up my Medium Interviews seem more. It's quite a task and a long drawn out affair but i'll be proud of it afterwards. At least I will have something physical to show for the time which went into it. 

I had a reply off my mum in the end and she has a valid level of uncertainty about being at a seance which is fine. Maybe I did jump in with my filling in the blanks about her silence or , maybe, she reads my blog. 

Now that today's writing tasks are complete and my film watching tasks are doubly complete, I sit down to read 'Gailiee' some more. I feel a little guilty but I'm enjoying these few days of a break from my little one, in the knowledge that they are numbered few. I can't wait to see him again but am also trying to make the most of the free hours. Well, my version of making the most of them. 

I don't seem to have time to switch off in some ways. I mean, the more hours I have spare, the more hours I fill with writing about sitting down and doing nothing etc. I never just sit and say, stare into space. 

Tomorrow I'm heading to my aunts for tea and to go over how my script editing is going on her short book. Half of me doesn't want it have to go but I know I'll be glad I did after I do. 

Day 2 with no son

A productive evening was had last night. Even once I was in bed I wrote my diary, the read. Then Woke up at 3am again and finished LEE CHILD'S Die Trying and started CLIVE BARKERS Galilee. Sleep came again around 4 am and a new day dawned soon after. The storms seemed to have cleaned up the air and has off a welcome freshness to the atmosphere. 

Work today involves trying to prepare a print job and fold it, while at the same time be cutting a large print job and boxing it up. The concept of not being able to be in two places at once seems unthought of. 

I seem to be having paranormal experiments and projects pop into my head each day and in a large way I feel somewhat 'guided'. This is becoming something of a common occurrence. Yesterday I also had this phrase pop from nowhere into my mind, "We are not a team with all the answers, but rather, a team with all the questions"  

I told my brother I'd decided to do a family seance for my 40th and he surprised me by being up for it, fair play to him! 

I text my mother this morning thinking she may actually be interested and NOTHING. So now my mind is filling in the blanks.....'she really doesn't want to come and doesn't know how to tell me' or 'she thinks I'm an awkward on purpose idiot'. Time will tell.  

Haworth Investigation write up for PPS.

Haworth Graveyard Session (Keighley festival) 

7/7/13

Si, Sue, Kevin, two female guests and myself met at Haworth cemetery on a hot July evening. We got protection out of the way quickly in this possibly 'hot' area. Si ran a thermal temperature experiment as he asked for the red dot of his thermometer to lower at its spot on the floor. We noted nothing substantial. 

I had done a sweep around where we were set up with my meters and unsurprisingly it was flat. There is no  wiring, overhead or underground in this location on the far outskirts of Haworth and the moors. All our mobiles were off. Yet, in my hand was a K2 meter flashing up to 3MG and nothing on the second one five foot away. We were stood by 'Jack's grave' at this early stage and we chose to set up our ouija board right here. We had never used a board in this graveyard up to this point which came as a surprise actually. 

I lost the reading on the K2 and moved my meter to try and find a natural source, but nothing was found. 

Then, both K2 meters light up. 

We perform an EVP session which upon review had no results. 

Kevin thought that he saw movement twice in his peripheral vision and checked to see if we were joined by a member of the public visiting a loved one but we were alone. 

(It's at this point that the severity of the midgeys became  apparent- if there was any let up in their attack, it only meant that some of them were going away briefly to get their mates).

Si asks out in the board and we get a twitch. 

Slowly movement starts. 

I catch a 'whine' of an animal on audio but the camcorder edit doesn't include this section of the evening so I can't really comment on its validity. 

Our first message comes through the board. T-H-A-N-K  Y-O-U

Sue "What for?"   T-A-L-K-I-N-G

The gauss crackles under the table but we didn't hear it. Yet my dictaphone hears it really picking up a reading all through communication! I think it was because we were outside, the sound diffused. 

We find out that this is JACK himself. We have spoken to him previously. 

Si comments that some needed attention has been given to the overgrown grass etc. 

"It's looking looked after, who did it? A relative?" NO.....M-A-U-R-E-E-N (a previous person who came on a ghost event here with Si before).

Si says "Has that cheered you up a bit then?" N-O-T   F-O-R-G-O-T-T-E-N.   that's pretty awesome. 

The gauss continues to crackle unheard. 

Chris "How  many spirits are lined up to communicate tonight?" 8

Minutes later Si says "We've been doing something recently that I don't know for sure that we are doing right"   H-E-L-P-I-N-G.  (I get a long whistle which is pretty tuneful in a way on audio, but again I only have this one recording of it and a tiny part of me thought it may be a squeak form the glass but without a video clip to cross reference it with for sure, I have to discount it) 

We say something about it being comforting to us that we are 'helping'. 

Jack says G-R-E-E-N  M-A-N. and the glass moves to Si. 

I'm glad that I had the presence of mind to ask "Are there any words to explain to us what this green man thing is all about?" L-I-G-H-T. 

This makes sense as it comes up when we are crossing a spirit over and sending it 'to the light'. Si is the one that they identify as the guide to do this. Si in particular feels a little uncomfortable with this connection every time. 

Sue "So are we doing it good?" YES 

"is there a lot we still need to learn?" NO

"Is this our calling?" YES

We ask for some other evidence but see none. We move to a different part of the cemetery but in this occasion get nothing except an odd light anomaly on one of Si's photos.   When zoomed in its not a singular 'orb' of light which could just as easily be dust, pollen or insect but rather two circles together. Maybe it also has a natural explanation but its something we've never caught before. The sky was filled with tiny midge flies and so surely there would be a load of insects on the pic if that was the reason.

We had to move on again to an area where only females have reported a certain sensation on this spot. Our first guest stands where we put her and reports nothing but our second suffers blurred vision and then let's out a yelp. She describes feeling something messing with her top and then a strange sensation as something rises up her body from the ground underneath her upwards. 

We really struggle to concentrate as we are the food for the summer flies until we itch like crazy. 

We plump for a last session and choose table tipping. 

We get some brilliant results. The table twists, walks like it is a two legged item and lurches suddenly, all the while, the camcorder gets a really good angle in daylight and shows how little influence we could have on the table. At one point the table end which stays down has no hands on it. Sceptics would be right in saying that if one person pushed down hard on one end then the opposite end would surely rise .....but we all had our fingers on the floating end! 

Our night was closed down as we could take no more bites. Plus the raised lumps on Si's legs spelled 'GO HOME NOW!'   (Only joking) 

C Whitehouse 2013  

Day 1 of 5 without son around.

This is the first day of my sons holiday with his mum. Normally this would be the longest day of my week due to seeing my son and stepson for drums after tea and work. But today I left work and came straight home. In preparation for these days apart my son and I swapped heart beats. Yesterday as I put my hand on my heart and he put his hand on his  heart, we then shook hands and put our souls into each other so that we would be with each other still. 

So tonight I got down to finishing some ghost investigation  reviewing and writing. After I had completed that I watched 'Rust and Bone' and found it to be mesmerising. To think I had sworn not to watch it as it looked like a tear jerker. 

Up until this day the weather has been extra hit but know my ex wife, son and step kids have gone on a little caravan holiday, the storms have taken hold and downed the country in electrified rain water. In my sons absence I chose to leave the sugary sweets, biscuits and puddings alone until his return. Day one has been managed. 

Tonight I will start writing my Medium Interviews finally, it's been a long time coming but the time is right. 

I'm being as productive as I feel is right as I may only get these opportunities once in a blue moon. 

My blog shot past 10000 page views today and for someone who has very little of interest to say, that is awesome. 

I've left my front room toy littered exactly how my boy left it on Sunday and it will stay the same until his return as if on still pause. The world does feel like it has Paused in a very real sense as my life will not continue without him in any significant way. 

I also decided today that for my 40th, I would like to do a family seance. It feels right. It speaks about who I am and will be a memory I won't forget. 

10,000 page views

Pox and jigsaws

The discovery of chicken pox altered our plans somewhat. We still went out if the house though. We played exploring in the trees of Cliffe Castle on its reopening. On looking around the museum itself it felt quite like spot the difference with the changes inside. Our decision to call at McDonald's for dinner got me my first chocolate milkshake from there in over a decade. 

I enjoyed it. We played around the house a lot due to his itchy spots. I spent £8.35 on the medicinal cream. 

Our evening was rounded off with us both tired doing jigsaws longing to go to bed. We watched G Force in my bed before 9pm arrived and we both went to sleep. 

Sunday morning finds us watching ratatouille. Slobbing out basically.  

Cinema investigation ahead/chicken pox

It's 5:20am and I've woken up thinking about our opportunity to investigate keighley picture house. PPS has tried to get in there for two years or more. 

I was shown around yesterday lunchtime by someone who I'd never met but who was also a member of my Whitehouse Film Club page on Facebook. Small World. I was shown behind the cinema screens to an old less travelled section which staff had a certain amount of fear about. Then into the cellar and upwards through the projection rooms up to the very top. 

There are stories from members of the public too about figures walking where they shouldn't. We have two late night investigations booked now and I have great feelings about them. Also yesterday my Crystal Experiment rolled out to 16 of the 20 people. I dropped one off with a particular friend of the teams and when I returned to my van, it wouldn't start. The van never struggles to start. 

I was facing up a hill and I managed to take off the hand break and roll away from the house and basically the embarrassment of it all. I panicked inside as I felt stranded on the way to collect my son from school. When I'd free wheeled down the street I as good as pleaded to God not to do this to me and tried again. It started no problem. I've heard stories from people about cars breaking down whenever someone visits and I didn't know of this was a freak occurrence or there was something 'odd' at play. 

I just thought I'd log it here. 

My son had his last day at school and I discovered he has a dozen or so chicken pox spots on him. So plans have drastically changed. 

 

Thursday morning in July 2013.

My body clock woke me up pre alarm clock bell and I laid slowly coming round to the idea of breakfast in bed with my son and then the school run. 

After 7am I heard the shuffling of 5 year old body and then my bedroom door, followed by "Dad, I'm just bringing my drink in here and then I'm going to try for a wee". 

"You're learning son!" I said. 

He joined me in bed for a cuddle and then he reached for Netflix on the ipad as I rustled him up some Weetos. 

We got in the van and completed the school run without a fuss. He made me take his indoor trainers , insisting that his teacher said he should take them home now. So he has his last two days of his first school year and then his long holiday. It seems a lifetime ago that I was in his position. 

So now I'm at work again and Ive struck lucky with a third day on this long easy job. Time for my mind to wander and my tongue to lay still for hours. 

Tonight there's a team meeting for PPS at my house and so that will take some of my spare time up but it's good to see the team even when not investigating. Plus this weekend marks the start of my Crystal Experiment. 

20 people with a crystal each in a test to see if it does give off some 'positive vibrations' after carrying one for a month. 

Uncle Invisible

I was just loading up a wagon at work and my uncle was at the garage me t door. He's in the auto trade and uses them in some way regularly. He stopped me and said hello as we sometimes do. Generally once every four months or so we will wade through a two and a half minute conversation and then eagerly scurry away before it gets too awkward for either person. 

When I was 12/13 and below, my mum and I would see lots of her brother and his wife and sons. But some family argument interrupted their contact and from then on my uncle never really acted like an uncle anymore. The strange part is he had been in side with my mum as they fell out with a completely different sibling, so it made little sense that he would become distant. 

It's true that I've always held some form resentment for family who have become invisible in my life as I grew up. 

Family who you NEVER see are no longer family to me. Family are people who interact with you every so often. Even if its every three years or so. They are still relevant if contact is renewed at some point. 

Today, for the first time , my uncle brought out his mobile and asked for my mobile number. I played along and gave it to him. Luckily I gave him my genuine one as he rang it so that his would appear in my phone (and also, no doubt, to see whether I'd given him the real one). 

I left him after a full four minutes saying "Well , I might hear from you then"

I hope I do in some form although its more expected that I will simply never hear from him at all. 

Just for the record, when I moved out of my mothers and I to my first house near my uncle and aunt, I actually contacted him and went for a drink with him. I imagined it would lead to a casual family friendship which would strengthen our bond over the years. 

But actually in the intervening 18 years, it never happened again. 

Actually it may be that I'm to be at my sisters wedding with him this year and he is desperate to have someone to talk to. 

Black and white

I don't think there's such thing as Black and White in anything. 

Everything is grey. 

Black and White are merely two extremes of greyness. 

Ex girlfriend interactions.

I was back in touch with an ex girlfriend of many moons ago and struck up a friendship since we were both single and it was uncomplicated to do so. I'd very much enjoyed our brief chats over the weeks. Recently she had died off somewhat and I decided to actively nudge her into communication again. This had required weighing up my 'reasons' for doing so. 

It seems I enjoy our interactions a great deal. She holds fond memories from my past but also brings the memories of us splitting up and all the grumbles which led up to it and what also came from getting over her. 

Obviously it's fairly easy to put these out of my mind (and here too) since much has happened since those days. 

Anyway, having enjoyed our contact recently, I missed it when she went quiet. I had to ask myself if I 'needed' her to the point of importance or whether It would come across to her that I was imposing myself on her too much. 

But I came to the final thought of 'fuck it- I want to talk to her again'. 

She does fill a gap in a way. She is the only female of my age (or any age) that I get to hold a conversation with and I enjoy doing so. 

It's safe. 

It also means I don't 'really' despise all females at all. I just can't bear to be hurt anymore by them.  

Invisible bad qualities.

If I am to not include other people's suspected opinions of me and just tell you how things look from where I'm standing, I'm in a good place. 

I have hours of free time which I choose to fill with my friends in the paranormal investigation team which I contribute towards. Outside of that I try and watch one film a day as a rule and post them on Facebook page The Whitehouse Film Club . So I write for PPS and write this blog and my diary plus now a digital diary too. I read most days time permitting and drink pop and coffee. I'm come and go as I please  and have my health. From my angle, I'm set for life. No more alterations to do, just sit back and see things gently change around me through the years. 

No black moods, no hangovers, no partner giving me shit and no self hatred. 

As soon as others are pushed towards me though, something always gets seen in a negative light. 

I don't want to socialise like I did when I was twenty and shirk invitations if possible. 

But as I say, from my angle I'm happy. 

I like to watch life from the sidelines and the thought of 'eating out' is not seen as a treat but more a waste of money. Most of the fun I have is the saving of money in some way. Rather than eating at a pizzeria then just buy a large supermarket one for half the price. That for example gives me pleasure. 

All my bad points only bother other people. 

Being selfish isn't something that upsets ones self. The same goes for bing ignorant or rude.... If you are the only person in a room it doesn't register. 

Not being affectionate enough or not wanting to hear about other people's days? All redundant if you are alone. 

Put another person in the room and the qualities we just looked at jump up into view. 

So my answer is don't have that second person in the room. 

Lonely? No... Happy.  

Silver Tuesday

This morning the world has a silver sheen as rain clouds dominate the sky. After a great nights sleep my eye lids feel like steel shutters, heavy over my eyes. I have a long day at work ahead of me but the last third will involve making extra money. There's really not much else on my mind. I guess it's a day for zoning out. There's a certain timeless mindset which one needs to adopt when working over. ( ohh a flash of lightning over head.....and the smack of thunder, and now we await the pissing down rain). 

Right I'm off to work so ill speak later. 

Monday and visits from loved ones (or lack of)

With the week off to a fresh start I enjoyed the cloudy day at work even though the heat was still a problem.  I enjoyed two cans of coke but forgot to pick up my leftover pizza out of my fridge. I enjoyed toasted sandwiches instead and the smell drifted around the workplace and enticed fellow co workers. 

When the working hours were completed I arrived at my sons school and for the first time collected him before they ate tea. So the food I brought was to be enjoyed for a change. My son and I played in his grandmas garden. The game was called 'the devils' which he named after a talent show he had witnessed today at school where a lad in his class pretended to pick up guns and shoot them. Whatever it was, it left a mark on my son's imagination for the evening. We enjoyed our tea outside and had great fun together as we played. Although his glued up head was always in danger of further hurt as he jumped all over the place or ran. My stepson cancelled drums and so I arrived back home early and changed my bed covers happily. I only just beat them changing themselves I think. The evening had still very much got underway and so I watched 'The Ides Of March' (my film of the day) as part of my 365 films in 365 days idea continued. 

It' s now 10:12pm fact fans and I sit in my borrowed office chair up to to my dining room table. It's a comfy old thing and one which should make the writing process somewhat easier over time. 

On the whole I've done great this year at 'not speaking' out about anything to others in order to prevent them being able to pass on my shitty comments but today I've broken that rule twice. 

I think i'm suffering from a build up of anger/frustration since I caught myself putting some metal music on from my iPod on the car journey alone. The angry vocal shouting seemed to diffuse some of the build up. Years ago it would've been a blade to the forearm so that's just one more way which I've improved myself. It's been another day of thinking over how my man problem always boils down to the presence of other people in my life. The feeling of wanting to go unseen has returned or take back comments which have left my lips only moments ago. 

I think I need to stay away from family for a while to and see how long it takes them to visit me. There's always some lame excuse for not making the effort such as I may be watching a film. I don't explain the pause or stop button to them as they are just covering up their real reasons anyway. I've lived in this house for two and a half years and my mum, sister and both brothers have visited me one time each. I have visited them double figures each. Surely it's time for me to wait it out? If they don't come, then they don't wish to know my news. At least I'll know where I stand. 

Head Gash

I jumped out of my bed at 7:30 am and went downstairs to witness my laptop still struggling to import iTunes work successfully. Oh the hours I've spent watching iTunes move music around at the speed of snails. 

I set off to the cinema on this grey cloudy, but yet still hot day. I was looking forward to watching The Worlds End and on the journey I felt that pang of freedom which I was once again grateful of, tinged with a duality of sadness at being single for good. 

I let the darkness of the cinema encase me with its delights and I chuckled to myself throughout the film. 

I then walked the lonely walk alone back to my van whereupon I drove listening to my podcasts which act as company I guess sometimes. A stop at Asda bought me my large pizza for lunch and I headed home. 

I ate my dinner and continued my battle with the ITunes debacle and then my phone rang. It was my ex wife, and by way of a shit hands free car kit she statically told me she was taking my son to the hospital. I confirmed that she was taking him to Halifax (where he was born 5 years before and where I had stayed awake with him over 30 hours when he'd been in overnight with an asthma problem) and then I'd heard enough to just say 'I'm on my way'. 

THIS is the reason I gave up drinking alcohol. The phone call at any-O-clock to say my son needs me urgently. I would've been pissed no doubt had I not quit over two years ago. So I jumped calmly in the van and concentrated reaching him ASAP without dying myself in a car wreck as I drove with my mind full of different blood covered or limb lost images of my son wrapped around his bicycle or something. 

When I reached him an hour later he was holding a paper square against his forehead where he had gashed it when falling on the toilet as he jumped unsuccessfully over an extension wire. 

He came and sat on my knee and my ex said "I'm glad you came" (because she thought he was to have proper stitches in his head- but it turned out to be just tape). 

I was there for him (for both of them I guess) and I did my job. 

I drove home happy at myself. 

I watched The Wonder Years and Breaking Bad to enjoy the end of my weekend. 

A new week starts once again tomorrow. ...and who knows what will happen in it?  

Post family gathering

After the family get together I came away as usual feeling like I'd done something wrong. I feel comfortable with each person there in a one on one conversation but as soon as its a group I stay quiet due to feeling they don't understand me. Well that and the fact I can see I don't feel like them. They drink, I don't. You'd be surprised how big a rift that outs between anyone but that isn't IT. If I drank I'd still fell like I was on the outside of the group. I don't feel miserable at all when I'm alone. On these pages I've said just how HAPPY I am all the time these days. But when I'm with them I still feel like I'm the depressed one. But really it just seems to be that I'm wired different to the rest of them. They are doing nothing wrong. The act as themselves and being with them is fine but I come away feeling such a huge relief from being under their gaze. 

It's like I feel ashamed in front if them. YES THAT'S IT! I feel, ashamed. Why is that? 

But you know what? It's not just with the, it's with any group. I don't go out, I don't like socialising because of the negative after wave. 

So it's Sunday morning and I'm watching DAWN OF THE DEAD, the Snyder version. 

It's a lone path I walk. I guess in a way I'm a zombie shuffling through my life. But that sounds like a bad thing, but it's not. 

It's surely the fact that I struggle to be around others for long that makes me seem this lone figure. 

Everyone else is partying together while I pull the curtains on and sit alone watching a film. But other than my son, I don't need others to be happy. Quite the opposite, as I've just described, interaction with others is what makes me feel bad. 

My family must see me as awkward.  

Pre family gathering

Our Saturday was mostly spent getting all our figures out and having the build able monster pieces (not Lego but kinda like Bionicle, but not) form three aliens who come through a portal to wreak havoc. Hours were lost this way and he grumbled when it was time for him to return home. 

He's here for a day longer next weekend and that'll be nicer. Although he is away with his mum the week days following. 

I have dropped my son off and am parked in my growing up  home village of Cullingworth where I spent my first 21 years. I'm sat in a newly constructed (to me anyway) piece of car park down by a stream known As The Dell. 

We spent hours down there as kids. Many memories flood back to walking the footpath many times on different adventures in my life. I wish I could get out and revisit 'my thinking tree' but I'm afraid of what thoughts that would bring up. I always feel 'weak' after dropping my son off and the prospect of a family get together usually brings a punch in the gut from at least one barbed comment and I'm not sure I'm up to it. 

My best option is to know before going in that these people are just a random set of people with different outlooks and opinions to me and there's no predetermined 'understanding' to speak of. They don't have to care about me or my son or any damn thing that I believe they automatically should really. 

We are all free spirits whose lives intersect more often than other people we regularly meet with. 

Mine is an Independent path which I only have to seek judgement over from my son. 

If he's happy, I'm happy.  And I can honestly say, he is happy. 

So allow others to mistakenly offend me and I no doubt offend them. 

Even at 39 I can see how the geography of my hone village has transformed. Memories are not a physical thing, just a view of thought. 

Nothing stays the same. We are hurtling through space at all times and the clock is ticking for each one of us. There's no fighting it so make the best of this evening or any other. 

And with that..... I set off to see my family. 

Death and the endless nights

Not knowing whats to come

I disappeared out of the burning glimmer of the Sun and tightened the blinds but opened the windows. I had a welcome shower and burnt a disc at the same time as watching a film called 21. As its drawing to a close, I sit with a full belly and a coffee as I hear birds tweeting from outside. I love my 'time' a great deal. I have time to think, ponder, reflect or just plain zone out. 

I'm seeing lives of others crawl by me like clouds in a sky and I'm the one in a static point as they fly past me. I can't see my life ever going faster but it will no doubt become emptier as my child and step kids out grow me. 

What then? I guess the fun is to not know. 

Summer colds and writing without sky

I've been really busy over the past week. But last nights four hours after work was filled with my writing up the last segment of a paranormal investigation (see last entry). After that I simply went to bed as I was so tired. 

My son and I both have a summer cold which is pretty weird in this heat. I'm just about to collect him from school now. 

Since unplugging my Sky TV completely since cancelling the service, there's only been one occasion when I  plonked myself down on my sofa to eat and realised that I couldn't just 'watch a bit of Sky' as I ate. It was no loss though as I just stuck Netflix on instead. I'm looking forward to having that money at my disposal. Things are still going well for me and it never gets old when I realise that no one is bothering me with trivial rubbish which can be found in a more populated household of an evening. 

Spontaneously doing whatever the hell I want is far better than having the stresses of a relationship which ends up best described as 'sleeping with the enemy' each time. 

This summer heat is not to be complained about but it makes for a sweaty and sticky time of it during a working day. Only a day and a half to go this week before hanging out with my son properly over a weekend. 

I've started to also write in a diary app called Day One and it spreads my attention thinner if anything. I seem to have loads of obsessive writing projects on the go at any one time. But currently if anything it's taught me time discipline and time management. 

My son has his school year one graduation next week and I look forward to attending that alongside my ex wife and step daughter. His first year at school almost under his belt and he's benefitted so much from it. He's had a glowing report and is we thought of by the staff. 

I just want my life to keep this steady stress free level for many more years. 

I'm enjoying reading more than usual too and that's probably helped by having the tv off more. Drinking my cafe tiere coffee can't do any harm either. 

Ghost Investigation in 3 parts

A Private House Investigation, somewhere in Riddlesden. June 2013. 

Si invited me on a pre investigation to see a lady who had contacted him with some claims which came under possible Poltergeist activity. I'd heard some of the claims and in my own cynical and rational way I'd half made up my mind on what may lay ahead. What I write here is just my opinion of events. I have to tell you that because even after having visited this location I can't quite pin down what was genuine activity and what was attributed to the spirit. It certainly turned out that I was wrong on some level but where the line gets drawn is open to your own judgement. So I'll write it as I saw it 'at the time'.

So having arrived at the location, the two of us enter with only a couple of meters to do an initial sweep for natural electromagnetic disturbances which can cause emotional fluctuations which can cause such extreme things as hallucinations.  

We met Rita (not her real name) who lives alone. Si asks Rita to show us why she invited us in. Rita explains that she has seen multiple damage done to her home and belongings over the past weeks. The first evidence we are shown is damage to her wardrobe where she keeps her coats and shoes just inside the front door. Where the door holds the hinges there is obvious damage in the woodwork for sure. I see that it hangs at about the same height as a coat with large buttons which i suggest may have become trapped in the door upon closing or some similar item had. I say this because at a previous home I'd done the same. Rita frowned on this notion. There was a radiator which ran down the hallways wall and behind it a long crack or scratch had been painted over for Rita. Again I suggested the heating and cooling of the radiator may have attributed to such a crack in the wooden skirting. We were then led to the kitchen to where Rita had one day noticed a 'face' in some wooden (Vertical skirting if you will) framework running upwards near the kitchen window. Rita had already paid to have a decorator in to paint over these new additions. So when I leaned close to where the face had been noticed, all I saw was a painted knot in the wood. 

My excitement for the case was slowly evaporating. I stayed wordless at this stage but I felt that what we were seeing here was a large dose of 'Matrixing' by a lady who lived alone. This was my snap judgement so far. But I had heard that 'half a brick' had gone missing from her fireplace stonework one day. This was surely something more tangible as 'weird'. We were shown a fire with red brick surround and the bricks had imperfections all over them as one would expect. Rita showed me the face in the red brick. "Can you see it?" Rita asked. "Well yes I can see it Rita but ......have you ever heard of Matrixing?" 

Rita had taken a supernatural course in her 30's and had always expressed much interest in all things paranormal. Rita grasped my meaning straight away. She was quite affronted by my near suggestion that she was just seeing something paranormal where there was only normal markings. "You've only been here ten minutes, I've lived here all my life". Oooops, I'd offended her. Si stepped up and made peace whilst I tried to keep my mouth shut. I accepted that she was right. What if the markings had not been there weeks before. Not just one marking but several. Rita showed us a wooden table which had scratches on it and even said that it had a donkey shape on it. Sure I could see it but I couldn't in all honesty mark it up as paranormal. But Rita was not done yet. We were led upstairs to her bathroom where she said scratches had appeared on her taps. I looked closely as Rita said "You can see where he silver has been scratched off". 

I recognised limescale build up immediately and ran my finger on the build up of the lime deposit. "This is just a build up of limescale from the water Rita....feel it". Rita seemed to be flustered when she saw that I was right. She obviously thought that we were going to see her as being 'daft'.  After all, I had to still take her at her word because I hadn't PROVED that no spirits resided there. This had been her parents house before hers and so I imagined there would be some residual energy around from somewhere in the past, but was it active? Rita's bedroom wardrobes had magnetic shutters which seemed all worn out together. Rita saw this as just another piece of ghostly evidence. With this upstairs and even the drawer top beneath the cutlery drawer worn away plus a worn semi circle of wood colour around the cutlery drawer handle, to Rita, the house was full of damage. To me I saw that the cutlery drawer for example was the most opened and closed of all the drawers over the two or more lifetimes of service and pretty unremarkable.  But then after speaking longer about her opinion on the matter she started to say things that may have made sense.

Rita had a large garden which could be seen out of her bedroom window. All the evidence that Rita had listed happened after she sold some of the land to what was now a house building project. Rita expressed an inner conflict about the deal but since she had no children to pass the land down to and since the work of upkeep was beyond her energy, then selling it and enjoying the money now was the only logical choice.  

So there was land being disrupted and a sense of change at play. This had Si and I reserving our judgement a little longer although si was far more openminded about the case than I to his credit. 

We asked if she had heard any noises at all and she said that she had heard banging from above, in the attic she thought. This fell into making sense to us too. Spirits have a tendency to inhabit the areas least visited by the living. Attics and cellars can become places of laying at peace for them to stay away from us and not because they find them comfy at all! So we tailored our questions about more wisely now. We asked about items seemingly going missing strangely, otherwise known as APPORTATION. Yes, said Rita, some documents pertaining to the land had seemingly vanished. So now I too withheld my judgement. No smoke without fire? I thought to myself. The client knows best about what has been happening and it seems that for this case to be genuine then there was a sufficient series of possibilities at play to be onto something.     

Rita said that it was her feeling that the selling of the land had started 'something' up and there were reports of missing items  in an extremely ordered home making the likelihood of ever misplacing a thing microscopic. Bangs in an uninhabited area  also fit the bill for Si and I. With Rita being so adamant that we were needed to return with the team we spoke about how we should approach our return. I explained that some of what she said pointed to a possibility of there being a spirit interacting with her. I left it to go unsaid that other parts seemed to be nothing. I also said that it was probable that we would get contact on the ouija board, but could not guarantee that it was the causer of the 'damage' etc. 

Rita wanted to have herself a new kitchen fitted at a great cost but until the damage ceased, it seemed pointless. Finally Rita told us that she had actually phoned a holy man to come and bless the house. This man, Rita said barely seemed to not only not believe in her spirit story but didn't believe in spirits at all! 

Rita had this same guy visit "20 times" to the tune of £200 donations from Rita. Si and I felt very strongly that she shouldn't part with a penny to anyone who took an interest in her story. 

We left feeling a little annoyed at her seemingly being ripped off by a holy man and discussed our views on what we were up against if anything. 

NEXT.....Investigation 1.      

13/06/13

Private House Investigation 1. 

I entered this investigation with a clean slate and ready to listen to what any spirit had to say about the claims. 

Kevin, Gill, Si and myself arrived three days later with our general medium kit and started about setting up in a downstairs room with Rita. For the benefit of Kevin and Gill some of the damage was viewed by them and Rita explained why we had been called. So on a bright June evening we gathered around a table for the umpteenth time to talk to the dead. 

But first, something of  note, Si and I had never encountered a house so low in it's electronic readings. Our pre investigation sweep with our meters had been 1 milligauss over the whole house excepting near obvious equipment such as tv or fridge etc. Rita was one of the few places which still had no wifi for example. So electrically this place was clean. However after protection was finished, one of our torches lit up and the gauss meter flickered. The slow flicker was heard as a repeated clicking but it wasn't the same rhythm, it was varying and so not recognisable as a natural source since the meter was stable and untouched.  Si asked for the clicking to be made faster. I saw the reading rise to 2 milligauss and we all heard the clicking increase in tempo before dropping again. Si asked counted down from 3 to get a requested hit on command again but this time, just silence. 

Si asked out for glass movement for nearly 10 minutes but it wasn't until we asked for Gill to ask out (some spirits will only play ball if a certain gender is running things) hat we had movement. The gauss clicking rose as the glass moved slowly. Gill asked for a group of energies to work together if there were more than one. The glass moved to YES with more power this time. Gill led the glass into building up it's energies by having it repeatedly draw a circle on the board. The glass slides over the number 5. We did ask for teamwork so maybe there are 5 spirits using the glass together? Not so...the glass then moves to 4. 

5..then 4  then 5...then 4  the glass then circles 54 over and over. 

Gill "54? we're not sure what that means" the gauss clicks more rhythmically. 

Gill "How many spirits are with us?' 3

"How many male?" 3

As the glass gets ever more controlled we ask for just one spirit to speak using the glass. 

Gill "Please can you tell us your name?" NO

'Don't you trust us yet?" NO 

While we push for the spirit to name itself the gauss rises and falls in readings. 

"Are you always at this property?" YES

"Have you caused damage to this house?" YES. (I was a little surprised I have to admit.) 

"is that just because you were angry?" YES 

"Is your anger related to this property?" H-U-T

Chris to Rita "Was there a hut taken down on the land?" 

Rita "Yes' 

Gill"Was that hut yours?" YES 

Si to Rita "Does that make sense to you?"

 Rita "yes"

Gill "Does it upset you that the hut's been demolished?" YES,  along with a large spike of energy on the gauss. 

"...and you're damaging Rita's property because Rita damaged your hut?" YES 

The glass moves from 5 to 4   5 to 4  5 to 4 again and Si actually gets a static electric shock from the glass. 

 Gill "Using the letters, can you say why 54 is relevant?" B-U-I-L-T

Si tries to ask a question but the spirit doesn't answer.  

Si "Sir am I not allowed to talk to you?' NO

whilst Gill pushes for a name, Rita tells us that in 1954 she would have only been 6 years old but did live here and  she remembers there being two sheds outside as long as she can remember until they were pulled down in much later years. 

We learn that this spirit built the first of the two huts. 

Gill 'What colour was the hut?" G-R-E-E-N. 

Rita says yes. 

Then the glass roams around 54 again. 

Our talk turns to animals for a while as it turns out that Rita's dad bought next doors garden at some point and one of the huts were used for keeping chickens in. We suspect we have a spirit neighbour from next door. We steer the questions around our suspicions. 

Gill "Did you live in this house?" NO 

Si "Did you pass in 1954?' YES. 

The gauss climbs when I suggest that this spirit lost control of HIS hut in 1954 because he passed over. 

Si "Was that hut your sanctuary?' YES 

"Are you blaming Rita for the demolition of that hut?" YES

Gill "Do you feel lost now?" YES

Si "Have you anywhere to go now?" YES .."You do don't you, you still have options my friend" 

"Did you come to the house when the hut went?" YES

"If you really liked the hut why did you sell your garden to Rita's dad?" O-L-D

Chris "You were too old to look after it then?" YES

The spirit says that he sold the hut in 1952, 2 years prior to his passing. 

Gill "In 1952, how old were you?" 69.

Rita "I was too old to look after the garden which was why I sold it, I didn't relinquish it lightly"

 The gauss climbs and climbs again. 

Gill "Do you understand Rita's reasoning?" The spirit says he still remains angry at Rita over it. 

Rita "The gentleman who bought the land from me got rid of the hut, I merely sold the land, do you understand that?" YES

Si "Are you upset at what the land is to be used for?" YES

"What should it be used for?" G-A-R-D-E-N.

Gill "Just as you sold your land, in some ways Rita has done the same" 

Rita "Is that solely what you are angry with me for?'" YES, the glass circles the word YES which we understand to be the same as underlining the answer. 

Rita "So what was I supposed to do when I couldn't look after it anymore?" G-A-R-D-E-N.

"Did you know my father?, can you spell his name?" No answer. 

Si tells the spirit our names as this has given us results in the past. 

Si notes that the glass almost went to C. 

Gill explains that we need proof that the spirit is who it claims to be. Giving us Rita's dad's name would be great as we don't know it. We ask for Rita to take her finger off the glass at this important stage.  

The glass doesn't respond. 

Si "Do you go anywhere else but here?" YES

"Did you stay in the hut?" YES. Gauss increases. 

"Are you now lost?" NO.

The glass then moves to C-H-A-R-L-E-S. 

Gill "Is Charles your name?" YES.  Seemingly confidence has been gained. 

Rita "Did you know me as a little girl?" YES

Gill "So please tell me the name of Rita's father?" 

Rita "Can we have your surname?" NO 

Rita "When I was a little girl did you and your wife look after em at all?" YES. 

Glass moves 4 to 5. Rita wasn't born in 1945 so we think Charles meant when she was 4 to 5 years old. 

The glass agrees. B-A-K-I-N-G the glass spells. 

Rita says "Could easily have done baking with me" 

Gill "How long did you live next door?" 

Charles says they moved in during 1943. 

Rita remembers an elderly couple living next door but can't recall much detail. 

Si "Is it you who's been doing the damage?" YES.

"Is it out of frustration?" YES. 

"Do you mean Rita harm?" NO

"You are upsetting Rita though do you know that?, would you like to cause pain and upset to that little girl who you looked after because that is who Rita is?" a strong NO.

"So we need to reach a compromise. are you happy Charles?" NO

"Do you feel homeless?" YES 

"Have you resided in your hut ever since you passed?" YES 

"Can you promise us that you won't do any further damage if we come to some arrangement?" YES.

Rita "Did you damage my red shoes?" YES 

"And have you damaged my other shoes as well?" YES.

 (whilst I have to take onboard what we have spelt out to us at the board, we have also seen answers given that we now are essentially answered falsely just to wind us up. I would've preferred that the spirit had been asked to tell us what items were damaged. Rita was unknowingly giving away the answer first. I think at a ouija board if you asked "Are you going to kill us all and string us up by our feet?" The spirit would find it easy to answer YES because we'd set up the question and ultimately ourselves. My advice is to A/ let the spirit do the work if possible. B/ never ask such a question as I just used as an example in the first place.)

Si "So are you stuck here?" NO 

"Have you moved on?" YES. So the spirit chooses to return in visitation and isn't in need of help as such. 

Chris "Is it worth Rita getting a few flowers in a pot or otherwise and planting them near where your hut stood as some kind of memorial?" Charles liked this idea. 

Si "Is there any particular type of plant which you like?" G-E-R-A-N-I-U-M 

Si "Ok so this is the compromise, you promise that there will be no hassle from you and no damage on account of Rita putting some Geraniums in her garden to commemorate your memory.  YES.

Rita "So that would make you happy?" YES.

Si "Yeah so just refer to it as Charles' pot or whatever" YES. 

We all thank Charles for reaching this agreement. 

Si "Now Charles you said that there were three male spirits in this house do they do any damage?" NO.

Rita "Are they my family?" YES 

2 Males. 

The glass spells W-A-T-C-H-I-N-G. Chris "Family members are watching over Rita?" YES. 

Chris "Are you allowed to tell us who?" The glass goes dead....we have seen  this before. Charles has gone to ask the spirits if they want naming. There are rules at play on the other side. Most abide by them but not all, much like respect on this living realm. 

F-A-T-H-E-R. 

Gill "And are you allowed to tell us who the other is?" NO

"Do you feel happier now Charles?" YES

Rita "I want you to be happy Charles, I wish you no ill will" 

Si "So it was just a misunderstanding" 

Rita "Did you damage the fireplace?" YES. (Maybe he did, who am I to say he didn't right? But i reserve my opinion that it was natural.) 

Gill "So there's going to be no more damage?" YES. 

"Wait why did he just say there is going to be more damage?" 

Si "Are you going to damage anything else?" NO 

We are at the end of our session and we relax. Suddenly the glass isn't done. The glass moves a very graceful speed spelling out SORRY. It was a very touching moment actually.  

We wrap up and close down. 

But as the glass said, there was to be more damage yet and a few days later Rita rang again in more of a state. 

Investigation 2 write up will be along another day soon. 

(I really should go and see some of this sun before it goes)  

RETURN TO RIDDLESDEN.

INVESTIGATION 2.

As far as the team knew, Rita had been helped by our investigation. The spirit of Charles had agreed to stay out happily in the garden now that Rita had bought geraniums in his memory. When Rita rang to say there had been more damage done and it had been a more dangerous occurrence, it had us scratching our heads to be honest. All we could do really, no matter how well we felt we'd wrapped the house up, was to go again and this time throw all we could, equipment wise at it, so that we felt we could walk away happily knowing we were right. I say this with respect, but some of the 'evidence of damage' was a matter of debate. 

The new evidence of scratches on furniture and so on was topped by the claim that an under cupboard strip light had shattered in the kitchen and frightened the life out of Rita. There was a blackening on one end of the lights holding and it wobbled as it hung loose. Rita said that the light had not been switched on when it exploded. I have to say I wondered if there was a natural 'fault' at play here but couldn't think of it.  

Gill couldn't make this visit but Sue was able to come to this address for her first time. So it was Sue, Kevin, Si and myself who once again entered the property and while Sue cast her eye over the original evidence with Rita, the rest of us set up our equipment. We would hold our seance in the dining room as before but this time we added a laptop in the lounge which had the live feed from the kitchen and the viewing angle was aimed predominantly at the light breaking area. I set up voice recorders upstairs and even put a small camera on a tripod in the attic (which now i mention it, I'm still to review-doh!). 

The first pre visit had found the house on the whole to be very low on natural electronic readings on the meters but the first investigation had seen activity register on them during communication. I actually ran my meters around the various ornaments while trying to find a completely zero reading area for them to sit. I struggled for a while to find a total quiet zone and in the end put my meter back in the same place as where it was during investigation 1. While the others discussed already capturing a light anomaly in the kitchen on the laptop camera, notably in the area of the broken light actually, I stood and used my pendulum to ask for how many spirits were present currently. It said 2. This made sense because there had been 3 until we sorted Charles out on our last visit. 

We ask Rita to keep her finger off the glass to A/ Rule her out of subconscious interference and B/ see if we got a different type of communication without her energy. 

The meters read 1 milligauss as we begin protection which is the normal level you'd expect. The temperature was 20 C degrees. Instantly the gauss fires up to 3mg for twenty seconds or so. After that, throughout protection the gauss crackles away around the 1.5mg mark and boosts again to £3mg towards the end until protection is complete and it then drops to 2mg as I explain all the equipment which is now set up. 

I make 3 pretty lousy attempts at using the singing bowl in the hope of doing an EVP session but this soon goes out of the window anyway. I just get to ask for a loud shout from any spirits to hear upon dictaphone review but can now report i caught nothing other than 2 clicks on the gauss.  We have two torches set up around the board with us which are not illuminated as yet. Si knocked on the table in the hope of getting a reaction back......but nothing was heard. Si whistled his set pattern I was very excited when I discovered a possible reply on a recording device days later, but when i pieced it all together all I had caught was Si himself doing the first one-damn. 

Rita says to us that she has an inkling that the spirit bothering her is a foreigner and he's not a nice guy. I jump in and ask "Where are you getting that from though?" 

Rita "Well the face in the paintwork by the kitchen sink"

I groan internally as I think about 'matrixing' in it'smany forms.

Rita continues..."..and it looked like an arab or tunisian or somebody of that ilk.........I think he comes and goes".

Rita tells us of her gardener and how both his cars broke down from in her drive when he'd been round. When the minister came to bless the house before we got involved, his car wouldn't start either.  She tells us that the ministers wife's car had also broke down at the very same time as he arrived home via the AA. The list of motor related problems became tenuous but they also seemed to be a remote possibility from a certain point of view.  To remain as openminded as I could I asked out, "Is there a spirit here ho has anything to do with ************ the gardener?" no response. 

Si "Did you have  a problem with the holy man  minister?" The gauss clicks away here and there. 

Si "I've got a temperature device here, can you lower the temperature where that red dot is?"

20.4.....20.2....."more please" "Come on, a significant amount please" Nothing . 

I start to ask out for glass movement on the ouija board. Si believes he may have seen a shadow pass by the door to the hallway. Chris "Can the spirit who saw our white shield of protection come forward please?" 

Rita "Is Charles there?" No answer...... "I got your geraniums"

Si asks Sue to ask out because on our last visit Gill was the person to get a response. Some spirits seem to react differently for different genders. 

As we wait I tell the time that i have already done a dousing with the pendulum and was told that there was only two spirits present now. 

The gauss suddenly creeps into life with a crackle of 3mg and it's constant. I suggest we link hands again as we did for protection to harness this spirit energy. There's a sense of being surrounded by an energy as we can clearly here it on the meter. Chris "Is it building to do something?" 

We tell the cause of the noise all the various ways at it's disposal, to show it's presence. 

After as long as 6 minutes, the gauss dies out. 

Si does pendulum work now and comes up with the same amount of spirits. The gauss crackles once again. 

We all have our fingers on the glass now and Rita joins in too.

Chris "Please put your energy into this glass"  

The glass finally moves. 

Si "That's strong"

Chris "Can you identify yourself please?" I  A-M H-A-R-O-L-D

 "Lovely to talk to you again!" (This is Rita's father.) M-A-D

"Can you give us a key word as to what you are mad about?" 

Si reports a breeze. 

The glass answers me...L-A-N-D. The gauss is crackling all the time again as the glass circles and circles, spinning and spinning, plus twisting on the spot. 

We check that this genuinely is who it claims to be. 

Si "Harold, who was Charles?" M-A-N

Chris "Yeah, a man from where?" N-E-I-G-H-B-O-U-R (The glass takes breaks to spin and spin which gives the spirit more energy to communicate for longer and better.)

We work out that Harold seems to be mad about the 'bother' surrounding the land sale where his daughter is concerned. 

Sue "Are you glad the Rita sold the land?, Did she do the right thing?" YES

"Have you heard that Rita say she may sell up?" YES.

"Are you happy about that?" NO

Si and Kevin report hearing a voice but I catch nothing upon review. That doesn't mean there wasn't one actually. 

Sue "Are you going to be around to protect Rita?" YES 

"Is there actually damage being done in this house?" YES 

Si "Can I ask a question?" No response. 

Si "Do you want Sue to ask the questions?" YES

Si "Sue, can you ask if all the damage is down to spirit?" A strong fast NO. 

Sue "Is it down to normal wear and tear?" ....."Is some of it down to spirit?" YES 

"Should Rita put this new kitchen in?"YES 

"Is there some damage being done to the bricks in the fireplace?" NO

Sue comments that she didn't think that was spirit upon seeing it for the first time. 

"Is there damage being done to the wardrobe in the hallway?" YES

"Who did it please?" M-O...(Si hears a voice again.)

"Next letter please?" S...but then the spirit says it made a mistake and ends up spelling MOTHER. 

Sue "Whose mother?" The glass spells 'Rita's' real name which has been altered for these write ups. 

At one point only Si and I have our fingers on the glass and it continues to move strongly. 

Si and I even look away from the glass a sit spells to take out our possible influence. 

Chris "Feel the power of that glass!" 

Si says "I tried to stop the glass myself just then to feel the pressure" 

"Can you spell Rita's mothers name please?" We start to feel a possibility that a different spirit is at the board.

The glass is very strong now to the point of being unnerving if you were slightly inexperienced. I take a moment to enjoy the thought that i've worked in this team for a approaching three years and so I can conclude that it isn't the team pushing the glass. if feels good to have that security gained over countless hours. 

I watch as the glass darts fiercely around one side of the ouija board. If it's trying to scare us, It's got the wrong people. The glass doesn't respond to our questions for a while culminating in it racing so fast that Si's finger comes off leaving only my own on it. The glass continues moving for long enough for me to be doubly sure that i am following it rather than leading it. (It's all about personal experiences in the end).  

Although the glass has now come to a rest, we feel that this isn't Harold. We ask out afresh for the strongest spirit in the room to move the glass. Whoosh, off it goes in a crazy fast pattern. Harold's movements had a somewhat gentle movement. This is different. 

The glass draws a line left to right and back right to left but on it's way oscillates as well making it a bizarre thing to watch at speed. 

Sue "This isn't Harold is it!". So if this isn't Harold, then it's the other 'mystery' one. 

The glass shoots to goodbye. 

After our discussion we determine that while we were talking to Harold, the stronger spirit took over the glass.

Si "Rita, we realise now that your dad is around protecting you but isn't strong enough"

I suggest we take a firmer approach with the spirit as we have sometimes found this to be a way forward. But then again, we've also been told to F off. The team lays out their opinions about what's going on here and Rita puts her corner forward. The land which was sold keeps coming up and everything seems to return back to that as the start of activity recently. There is talk of us getting on to the bought land and using the board on there later maybe. The answer of MOTHER given to the question 'Who is doing the damage' is also debated and none of us buy that as a truthful answer. Was this when the other spirit interrupted? Rita pipes up, "My mother killed herself in this room". (A fact which may have been of some use earlier than right now i would say, ha ha )

Rita continues.."In fact 3 of my family have died in 3 different rooms here" 

Chris "But why would they be the one tormenting you?" 

This investigation centres in no small part around the land which Rita relinquished ownership of. 

The gauss is notably quiet. 

To be fair to Rita, she said that the land was central on our first pre Investigation visit.  

Si "OK, I'd like the spirit who who went to goodbye to return to the table please" 

There is movement instantly. 

"OK well the table's yours, show us what you can do" The glass fires around the ouija board. 

Si "Are you a man?" YES (This checks out with evidence gleaned days ago that there were 3 males.) 

"Are you a member of Rita's family?" NO

"Can you see Harold?" YES

"Does Harold try and tell you what to do?" YES

"Do you like Harold?" NO

"Ok so we've got conflict here"

Rita "Ask if he's a  foreigner" 

Si "Can I ask you what nationality you are sir?" (To my surprise it spells..) E-G-Y-P-T

Chris to Rita "I think I may owe you an apology about the face in your kitchen!"  The glass continues to roam wildly. 

Si says firmly "Stop the glass in the middle NOW" 

Chris "Did you create a face in this household?" YES 

"OK where did you put it?" K-I-T-C-H-E-N

(The last flick of the glass threw Si off again)

Si "Did you do something in the kitchen recently?" L-I-G-H-T

"What did you do to the wardrobe?" K-N-I-F-E

Rita "Yes"

Chris "What is your message? What is the POINT?" F-U-N-N-Y

Si "Did you like it when the minister came? No reply. 

"Did you like the holy man?" I-N-F-I-D-E-L

Chris "What is your faith sir?" I-S-L-A-M

A big glass twist again and it changes direction.  "Wow, that was good, can we just ask you to demonstrate again with that energy?" The glass shoots from left to right to left repeatedly. We reduce our finger pressure as much as possible without taking skin off to see it still move.  

The glass turns 360 degrees and our fingers all twist over each other.  

Si gets an electric shock from the glass which causes him some discomfort. As we say this out loud.I feel a pin prick of static shoot up into my finger. Kevin's arm hair stands on end which is static based too. 

Si 'What can we call you?" I  A-M..... theres a click on the gauss and then....nothing. The glass feels ordinary and weighty. The gauss is silent. 

Maybe he has gone to ask permission or is deciding whether to tell us. 

Si "Come back to the glass please!" Movement again. 

"So what can we call you?" F-A-K-H-I-R. 

Chris "Rita have you ever been to Egypt?"   

Rita "No but i've always had a fascination with the place" 

Si "Do you have an Egyptian object in the house?" 

Rita is quiet as she thinks. 

Chris "is there anything someone may have brought you back from that way?"

Rita is still thinking and the glass is motionless. 

The reason we ask is due to objects often having 'attachments'. The easiest way for me to explain what this is about is to guide you to a programme called Haunted Collector, which you can find some of on YOUTUBE. 

Si "I don't think he likes this conversation" NO

Chris "Can you confirm that you came with an object?" 

"Can you give us a clue at all?" The glass doesn't answer me , it just continues to gather energy in circular motions. 

Chris to Rita "Was your dad posted in Egypt?" 

Rita "No Italy"

 Rita "Can you spell the object please?" 

Sue goes and looks at all the various ornaments around the house and because of her various visits to Egypt feels confident that she may identify an object of obvious note, but none is found. 

Chris "How did the object get into this house?" F-U-N-N-Y

Sue "You find it funny don't you", "Rita you need this object out of your house if we can find it" 

I explain that I have already run meters over the many ornaments in this room and picked up zero electromagnetic signatures from any. 

Si "Which room is it in?, oh he won't tell us will he"  

Chris "We could always ask Rita's dad Fakhir" 

Rita "It's not an ornament of a cat is it?" Rita has many cat related ornaments but none seem to jump out as 'the one'. We know that he would be a spirit fool to tell us which object if any he was attached to as he probably knew we'd be able to take it out. 

Si tries a different route.

Si "Are you stuck my friend?" N-O-T   F-R-I-E-N-D 

Gauss clicks away again. 

Si "You're a bit of a coward picking on ladies" F-U-N-N-Y

Si "No it's not funny, you should have a bit of self respect."

Chris "I wonder if there's something in the attic?" We did actually have the only gauss hit during the pre Investigation from my hand held into the attic. Who knows what is up there, Rita had never even seen. 

But as Si pointed out, Rita's family had lived there for 65 years so far and so this object would have to have been up there for ages if, for example, it had been left from a previous tenant. 

Si says "There has to have been a catalyst for this to start happening now"

Rita "Yes it started when i sold the land!" 

Si "Do you have any connection with the land?" NO

'Then how come you've just started this?" T-H-E-Y  D-I-D  P-O-W-E-R

Sue "Who are 'They'?" H-A-R-O-L-D  C-H-A-R-L-E-S

open speculation starts between us. Si seems to have the best punt. 'Charles enters the property after his hut was demolished initially and the disturbance of land. Harold pipes up in Rita's defence and Fakhir (until now laying dormant) , sees these two displaying a use of their energies and thinks "I'll have a piece of that too"

Sue "How long have you been here?" 9 

Rita "9 months?" 

A slow glass movement builds into a fast paced one. Very very forceful. 

Si "How many years have you been here?" 14 

Si "But how many years have you been active?" 0

"How many months?" 10

Sue "Rita is that about right?, When did you sell your land?" 

Rita "September!" 9/10 months ago. 

Si forcefully asks "So are you attached to an object? Answer me, Is it an old object?, Is it an object Rita owns? 

"How many years has this object been in this house?" 14

"Is it furniture?" 

Chris "I'm not being funny but could it be something buried in the garden which has since been disturbed?" 

Rita "It's not that egyptian cat is it?" (This is a strange thing to say. I worry that Rita has been subliminally influenced by earlier suggestions which she has remembered as her own. Rita thought long and hard about whether she had any object cat or otherwise which may have come from Egypt)

We discuss things further ...

Chris "What can we do to stop this activity?" 

Si "We need you to stop, will you stop?" NO

"What if we brought an Imam?"    absolute quiet.     

i·mam  

/iˈmäm/

Noun

The person who leads prayers in a mosque.

A title of various Muslim leaders, esp. of one succeeding Muhammad as leader of Shiite Islam: "Imam Khomeini".

Si "That shocked you didn't it?" silence. 

"He might treat you like a Djinn!"

<As we learned in the recent article "Exorcism is Islam," Muslims believe that evil djinn can sometimes possess human beings, as some Christians believe demons can possess people.>  From the web. 

There are a few beliefs surrounding getting rid of Djinn's but the most  commonly heard is trapping it in a bottle and burying it under running water. 

Si "Are you a djinn?" 

"He could put you in a bottle" The glass moves on and off NO again and again ..NO NO NO NO..

Chris "We could always come to some kind of compromise?" 

The glass glides. 

Si "OK what compromise?" 

Chris "Oh I hadn't thought that far ahead actually,  Fakhir, give us a word which we can work around?" 

The glass aimlessly roams the board. 

Chris "Farkhir, we don't want this to end badly for you, we still respect you" 

W-O-O-D

Chris "What about wood?" K-N-I-F-E 

"compromise? Wood knife?"

Si "is it a real wooden knife you've got? NO 

"Is it one made of energy?" YES

Chris "Would you like us to move you somewhere else?, maybe we can move you somewhere you'd prefer?" 

Chris "Are you stuck here?" YES

Si "He won't trust us to move him"

Silence. then slowly the glass drifts again. 

Sue "Were you ever in Egypt?" G-R-E-E-N  M-A N

* Once again the words Green man come out at a different location and by a different spirit. But end up refering to Si. This seems to tie in with a spirit wanting to be moved on or crossed over as we call it. We don't REALLY feel we know what we are doing but the spirits themselves tell us that we do it correctly. 

Rita (Not knowing why we are so intrigued by the words green man asks "Can you spell out the name of the Green man?" The glass fires off the board at Si's end. 

*We have since been to yet another location and I asked for a explanation of what Green man/Si represents and the spirit said "LIGHT". 

Si once helped a lost spirit  attach to him and return to a location which it  had come away from with a reporter from a newspaper. The reporter had unwittingly brought the papers known ghost with her to a seance we did for an article. It all sounds very 'out there' I know but it's becoming more and more relevant to us these days and especially during communications from spirit to us.    

The glass roams the board again and seeing Si's discomfort at the link again say 

"I'm even thinking of suggesting we let him to attach to one of us  just to let him get out of here."  

Once again the glass flies off the table at Si. 

Sue "You've got to do something Si"

Si "Put your fingers on the glass everybody"

Si "Do you know I've done something  before that's helped other spirits?" YES

"You have to wholeheartedly trust me, Do you understand me?" YES

Si calms Fakhir and ends up asking him to look around where he is. 

"Do you see anything?"  L-I-G-H-T. This is usually how it goes. With none of us 'Sensitives', we do this blind in a way but it always has worked so far. 

Si "OK look at the light, go towards the light" NO

Si "You said you trusted me"

Si "Is there anyone you know in the light?" YES 

"Is there anyone you recognise Fakhir?" WIFE 

Chris "Good work"

Si "Now you may not trust me but you'll trust her"

Chris "movement is getting stronger" 

Si "Do you trust her?" YES 

"What is she doing?" H-A-N-D

"Is she holding out her hand?" YES 

"You need to grasp it my friend"  

"Are you a little scared?" YES "Don't be....grasp that hand and walk forward into the light"

 The glass is stopped dead and quietness fills the room. 

Si "Fakhir, are you here?" nothing

"Are you here now?" nothing. 

"If you're here, answer me now"

No gauss and no glass movement. 

We have to ask a spirit to confirm from their side so .."Harold, please come to the table"

From the side of the room where none of us are at 2hrs and 2minutes, we hear a floorboard creak. Chris and Si "What was that?" I can hear it on my dictaphone headphones if i turn it up. 

Si "Harold, how many spirits are there now?" 1

"Harold, we need you to look after Rita, if for any reason you need us back here, then please come to our board at another location" 

Harold moves to GOODBYE and we close protection with the belief that things will be quiet now. 

While I had mostly doubts at the start, I learnt a valuable lesson overall. The client has a better idea at times of what is there and maybe Matrixing is widespread and common but  theres no smoke without fire in some cases.  

C WHITEHOUSE 2013.