CJ Attacks Daily Star Over Misrepresentation of Ghost Research that Claims British Ghosts Disappearing

CJ posted up a piece the other day, 29th May 2024, taking the Daily Star to task for distorting a piece of research by another paranormal investigator, Dr Paul Lee. Lee had spoken to the wretched rag four years ago, and one of their hacks had dusted it off and republished. CJ was annoyed not just by the distortion, but by the fact that it’s been picked up and circulated on the web, and so used to make fun of ghost research.

I’m not remotely surprised at this. The Star was launched in the ’80s as a competitor to the Scum, and shared that rag’s low journalistic values. Ben Elton attacked it in his show, Motorvation, as an example of the ‘scumbag British press’ after it put a 15 year old girl on its equivalent of page three. The girl was underage, and so covering her breasts. The headline announced that although she was only 15, the next day would be her 16th birthday and it would be then that they’d show their readers her boobs. This comes very close to sexual exploitation of a minor, and while it was no doubt legal, after being cleared by their lawyers, it wasn’t moral. Then in the ’90s it faced competition from the Sport, formerly the Sunday Sport, launched by pornographer David ‘the Slug’ Sullivan. This rapidly acquired a readership, partly by copying the Weekly World News and printing nonsense stories like ‘B52 Bomber Found on the Moon’. The Star decided to copy that miserable excuse at journalism, and aimed to go even lower. Thus it also printed lurid fake news. For example, in the early ’90s there was an SF chiller, Chimaera, about a team of evil scientists who had been experimenting to create a ‘humanzee’ human-chimpanzee hybrid to be used as a slave species. The Star picked it up, and ran a story claiming that such research really was going on an they had seen miniature elephants in secret British laboratories. Unfortunately for the rag, but fortunately for the collective IQ of the British public, this approach lost them readers and so they had to go back to something resembling normal journalism. As for recycling old news, the Scum used to do that with filler stories. When I was in the sixth form in the ’80s the Scum ran a short piece about the authorities in South Africa clamping down on gays who were running after male joggers. Nearly a decade later in the ’90s I found a copy of the Scum lying around in the university bar. And, lo and behold! It had the same story. They’d obviously banked that the story was so old no one would recognise how old it was. But then, the super soar-away Scum did not have a reputation for journalistic standards.

With summer almost on its way – despite the rain- and parliament preparing to close for the election campaign, my guess is that the paper’s editor decided that the Silly Season had arrived. The Silly Season gets its name from the fact that it’s about this time of year, when parliament is in recess and there is supposedly a shortage of real news, that the newspapers start printing daft stories, often about ghosts, UFOs, crop circles and Elvis Presley found alive and working in Burger King in Woking or somewhere. It looks to me like the editor had gone through the old story files and decided to reuse Dr Lee’s story as a Silly Season item.

The headline declared that, according to Lee, Britain was running out of ghosts as aging spirits were either dormant or crossing over to the other side. But that wasn’t quite what Lee had said. Lee had chased up the various ghost accounts to see how often the ghosts recorded in these locations had actually been seen, and found that very many hadn’t. But he did not make the claim that the country was running out of ghosts or that they were somehow dying off.

CJ explains that ghostlore is a subgenre of folklore, though unlike folklore it claims to deriver from witness testimony. There are very many websites that provide the ghost stories and lore by region, and so, if you’re interested, you can look up the local ghosts in your town or county. Lee’s particularly contribution here was to create an app providing such information for people’s mobile phones. CJ reviewed it was back in 2019 for Anomaly, one of ASSAP’s magazines, and recommends it. It’s available ‘for a very reasonable price’ on Google Play on Android. CJ had also had the pleasure of interviewing the man himself about his research at ASSAP’s annual conference, held in Bath in 2022, and the two papers that this research had given rise to.

Instead of rehashing the old stories from books and websites, or invented them wholesale like Charles Samson did with his Ghosts of the Broads, or did what CJ did and looked at newspaper articles and interviewed people in pubs, Lee had gone back to all the locations listed in the books on ghosts and ghostly heritage, phoned up their staff and then updated this information with his new research. He found that the majority of businesses he contacted knew of the ghosts and their stories, but hadn’t actually experienced any ghostly phenomena themselves. Some of them admitted inventing stories or playing them up in order to attract ghosthunting groups. But even the locations that did have a strong reputation for being haunted often had not current residents or staff that had actually witnessed anything. CJ thus remarks that, if ghosts are viewed like the fictional characters of the BBC comedy of that name, and similarly fixed to a single location, then they would be dying out. In fact, the idea ghosts dying out long predates Ghosts. I read in a children’s book in the ’70s that ghosts gradually fade away over time. I don’t know where this time came from, but as the same book, if I recall, said that the Ghost Club claimed Britain had more ghosts per square mile than any other country, I suspect it probably came from that august organisation. Lee also recorded some more recent activity, and CJ tentatively suggests that some of the ghostly activity may have changed. But what really matters is that Lee had actually done some original research.

Now the article moves on to what this research may tell us about the nature of ghosts. This is that ghosts occupy and are bound to particular places, despite not having physical bodies. They are continually resident, and ghosthunting really consists of visiting a place and tempting them to come out of hiding. If the researcher is at the right place and time, they’ll see a ghost. CJ doesn’t pretend to know ghosts’ real nature, but he is fairly sure this image of them is false. If it was correct, then people would have the same attitude towards them as the people whose home are infested with rats or bats. Ghostbusters and exorcists would have all the glamour of Rentokil, and all scientists would have to do to gain knowledge about them would be simply to go there. Then, says, CJ, we’d know more about them than quarks and the far side of the Moon. Probably at less expense too, I might add.

The article then moves on to discuss the notion of the tenebrous. This was an idea CJ proposed in 1997 comparable to Rudolf Otto’s idea of the numinous in his great works of religious scholarship, The Idea of the Holy and The Original Vision. Otto meant by the numinous the sense of the sacred at some particular holy sites. In the case of the tenebrous it’s associated more with fear and death, and is centred on spooky old houses, ruins, dark and remote places, abandoned asylums and all the stereotypical locations of horror movies that ghosthunters love. These are viewed as ‘thin’ places where the supernatural is able to manifest itself more easily. In fact there is a point of similarity between the tenebrous and the numinous. Otto in his books talks about eerie places, and cites an old Indian phrase to describe the feeling in such locations, which is the feeling someone gets in an abandoned place.

CJ is sceptical about the truth of this image. He states that most ghost cases occur in ordinary family homes, spread equally across day and night, and that people are far more likely to encounter a ghost in their bedroom or kitchen than in the stereotypical haunted castle. Ghost books don’t mention private homes as that would be unethical and could be very costly if the residents sued. And so the books concentrate on places open to the public like pubs and stately homes. This is very true. I heard back in the ’90s that ethical ghosthunters were very careful when discussing whether someone’s private house was haunted or not, as it can knock thousands off the value of the property. And many people very definitely do not want Joe Public turning up en masse on their doorstep expecting to see something spooky.

CJ then goes on to state that from his own experience, ghost encounters tend to be far and few between. From the time he started work as a researcher on Most Haunted – and I note that was again in the news the other day with a story about the show’s medium, Derek Acorah, cheating – to today, most of the places he examined in detail had had at most only ten incidents of a ghost appearing in the past fifty years. This gives odds of 1,825:1 against a spook appearing on any given day. And ten is a high number for most very haunted locations.

Even with the very active poltergeist locations days and weeks can pass between incidents. Here he gives as an example the classic case of the Enfield polt as a kind of counterexample. It’s atypical in that individual outbreaks certainly cluster together when plotted on the calendar. But this is unusual and most cases aren’t like that. The image that they are come from the movies, which need good pacing and generally adhere to the old theatrical unities of time and space. They therefore show objects constantly flying off shelves, chairs being stacked and small girls sucked into the TV set, but most cases aren’t like that. And the last is definitely an invention of Steven Spielberg.

Five or ten years, and possibly much longer, may pass between incidents even in the most haunted locations, and so it isn’t surprising that Lee found that most of the locations investigated didn’t report anything. It is possible that there are certain factors make ghosts more active, the classic example being refurbishment. But it’s not known whether ghosts haunt people or places. I’ve certainly heard of people being haunted. One of the teachers at my mother’s old school believed she was haunted, as her father was an archaeologist. She saw a strange woman around her. My mother hasn’t been able to give me any details on what this spectral ancient lady looked like, which is a pity. Thanks to the excavation of very well preserved bodies from bogs and modern forensic reconstruction techniques, it might be possible to compare the appearance of the ghost with the appearance of ancient people from archaeology and so gain some idea whether the one fitted the other.

There’s another factor involved in the creation of ghostlore, and that’s the rise of the ghosthunter, people like Elliot O’Donnell, Harry Price, Andrew Green, Peter Underwood and very many others. These published accounts of their adventures and investigations to the point where there were travelogues of British ghosts on bookshop shelves and few towns didn’t have a book on the local ghosts. These books drew on each other, with locations changing in status until Most Haunted was launched in 2003. To CJ, the programme’s name is an absurdity as it’s a good question how you can tell how haunted a place is. The zenith of this type of ghost writing was probably around 1975 with the likes of Underwood, Green and many less-well known figures like Joan Forman and Marc Alexander. It should really come as no surprise that, fifty years later, nothing is remembered in many of the locations mentioned in the books, of events that may even then have been far back in the past when they were first recorded.

CJ concludes by applauding Dr Lee’s research and his updating of Britain’s ghostlore, and stating that it deserves far better than the nonsense printed by the Star. I thoroughly agree. I’m not surprised that the incidence of hauntings in Britain is considerably lower that the impression given by the ghost books. In the past and traditional folklore, ghosts often appeared to give particularly messages to the living. This could be the location of buried treasure, or to urge the living to search for their remains so that they could have a decent burial and go to their eternal reward. Sometimes, like Marley in A Christmas Carol, it was to give their survivors a warning of their dire post mortem fate if they carried on as they had in life. In these cases, once the message has been delivered and acted upon, there’s no more reason for the ghost to appear. Thus, we shouldn’t be surprised when it doesn’t.

CJ has written an excellent article defending the research of an investigator misrepresented by the press in search of a light summertime story at an expert’s expense. Perhaps what needs to be done to counter attitudes like this is for someone to start making a very strong case why we should take ghosts and psychic research seriously. Such as when it started in the 19th century when the SPR attracted politicians, scientists and philosophers.

For further information, see: https://jerome23.wordpress.com/2024/05/28/ghosts-working-notes-part-9/

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain Plays Silver Machine

This is a bit of fun for people who like classic British 70s rock. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain are a group that plays rock and pop pieces on the ukulele. As you can see, they wear dinner dress, and their performances include more than a little humour. In their singular rendition of the theme from ‘Shaft’ they make a few punning references to Cecil Sharp, the folk music collector.

‘Silver Machine’ was one of Hawkwind’s hits. As two of the commenters to the video on the orchestra’s YouTube channel, UkuleleOrchestra, point out, it’s actually about a silver bicycle belonging to Hawkwind’s main man, David Brock. Steve Sneyd, the expert on science fiction poetry, in his little book on Hawkwind and their lyrics, Gnawing Medusa’s Flesh, says that it’s actually inspired by a piece by the French proto-Surrealist Alfred Jarry. This was How To Build A Time Machine, but was really a construction manual for building a bike. Which shows the band’s sense of humour, as well as their knowledge of French avant-garde literature.

There were a lot of rumours going around about Hawkwind when I was at school. One was that there was a particular chord or note they would play on their synthesizer, that would make the audience lose control of their bowels. This was just when people were becoming aware of infrasound and the effect certain ultra-high or low frequencies would have on people. But would any rock band actually use such a chord, even if it existed? After all, how many people, no matter how hard core their love of the band, would want to come back to hear them after they’d all collectively soiled themselves for that band’s amusement. Probably very few. It’s nonsense, but it’s part of the rock and pop rumour mill, like the stories that Paul McCartney is dead and has been replaced by a double, Elvis is serving burgers in a supermarket somewhere and various Heavy Metal bands really have sold their soul to Satan.

As for all the hoo-ha on social media about Sam Smith and the rest performing Satanic rituals at the Grammy’s, I’d far prefer it if they performed instead another Hawkwind hit, ‘Space Ritual’. That would be far more fun, but it’s a blast from the past and so would be out of place at an event celebrating contemporary pop. Unfortunately.

But back to the video: is it me, or is the singer deliberately trying to look like William Hartnell’s 1st Doctor?

Trump Claims Ted Cruz’s Father Part of Kennedy Assassination

This is further proof of just how insane American politics has become. In this case, it’s due to the howling lunacy of Donald Trump. In this piece from The Young Turks, Jimmy Dore and John Iadarola comment on The Donald’s latest accusation against his leading rival for the Republican nomination, Ted Cruz. Cruz’s father urged all Christians to vote for his son, instead of Trump. Responded in a telephone interview with Fox and Friends by claiming Cruz’s father was one of those responsible for killing JFK. His evidence? A highly dodgy photograph on the cover of the National Enquirer.

The National Enquirer is a supermarket tabloid like the now defunct, World Weekly News. That latter, ahem, esteemed journalistic organ used to run stories like ‘Dad was bigfoot, says Beastie Man’, and ‘Alien gives vote to Bill Clinton’. It’s the American equivalent of the Sunday Sport way back in the 1990s, when that rag was running stories about B52 bombers found on the moon, and men being strangled by their own foul socks. And for some reason, Trump is astonished that no-one is following this up.

Jimmy Dore puts that into perspective by noting that no-one’s following up similar tabloid reports that Vampire Boy is still on the loose.

Cruz attempted to tackle this by giving a speech saying how it was all rubbish. Yes, he killed Kennedy. He also knows Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his back yard. He then states that Trump is a pathological liar. He also claims that Trump is a chronic narcissist, who talks about all the affairs he’s had, and describes his personal struggle with Venereal Disease as ‘my Vietnam’.

Dore and Iadarola make the point that Trump is indeed a pathological liar, who’ll believe everything he reads on social media. Like Mexicans are all thugs and rapists, and America needs to build a wall to protect itself from them. This is, however, just about the only time in politics when they are now speaking the truth, when they are accusing each other of lying.

They acknowledge that this is amusing, Iadarola also points out that there’s a much more serious point here. Presidential candidates are supposed to have some kind of critical thinking and intelligence. Trump doesn’t have any. He just believes whatever he reads. And unfortunately, so do many of his supporters. He’s got the support of the Conspiracy Theorist, Alex Jones, and so there are probably many Trump supporters, who are too far gone to be helped. As for Cruz, one of their technical crew notes how fake and stilted Cruz’s own replies are, and so within a few moments people are no longer interested in what he has to say.

Here’s the video:

Of course, you could probably make up a conspiracy theory about the Enquirer’s story about Cruz’s father involving the CIA. Cruz states that David Pepper, who owns the Enquirer, also knows Donald Trump. Hence the attack on Cruz senior with this ludicrous accusation. The former tabloid journalist, Jim Hogshire, in his book Grossed Out Surgeon Vomits inside Patient, published back in the 1990s by, I think, Feral House, claimed that the tabloid stories in America were being deliberately planted and manipulated by the CIA and the American intelligence services as part their manipulation of American public opinion. This might be right. But would the CIA be so insane as to want Trump to become president of the US?

Mutants from a Post-Holocaust Future: The Hunt Lobby and the British Aristocracy

Boxing Day is traditionally the day when fox hunters up and down Britain ride out to satisfy their bloodlust. Since 2004 it’s been illegal to hunt them with hounds, but this hasn’t stopped the Countryside Alliance from continuing to campaign for the repeal of the law. Mike reported over at Vox Political that a quarter of a million fox hunters were expected to ride to hounds on that day. And David Cameron wanted to see parliament repeal the law. You shouldn’t be surprised at that. He is, after all, a blue-blooded aristo, so the hunt’s almost certainly in his primal nature. Along with snobbery and an absolute contempt for those he regards as merely human animals, like the poor, disabled and working class.

Cameron was to be disappointed. The general public don’t want the ban lifted. Mike reported the findings of a poll, which said that 83 per cent of people don’t want a return to hunting with dogs. There’s also very strong support for the ban inside Cameron’s own party, with 70 Tories MPs stating they would vote against lifting the ban.

See the following articles on his blog: http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/12/26/opposition-to-fox-hunting-hits-all-time-high-with-even-most-tory-voters-opposed/

Fox hunting: David Cameron’s desire to reverse ban ‘doomed in face of Tory opposition’

Mike also quotes the BBC News, where Tracey Crouch stated that Parliament has far better things to do than debate fox hunting.

Fox hunting: Parliament has ‘better things to do’ than repeal Act

So who are the proud supports of fox hunting? Well, from the experience of a group of my friends in Cheltenham, aristocratic Tory grotesques. I was up visiting them once, when they’d gone out for the day to enjoy themselves at the races. They’d had a good time watching the horses, and had even won a bit a money gambling, but came back in a foul mood.

What had spoiled their day? The fox hunting crew.

They’d been drinking in one of the beer tents, when a group of the local Tory aristocracy came in along with a squad of very loud supporters of fox hunting. These two groups were horrendously snobbish and condescending towards their social inferiors, as well as physically repulsive. One of my friends wailed in support of this observation that ‘They had no chins!’

So it’s true. The British aristocracy really are chinless wonders.

One of the women was so annoyed with the crew that she immediately sat down to play a particularly violent computer game. It was set in a post-Holocaust future, so presumably she was getting the urge to beat horribly deformed mutants to death out of her system.

It all rather reminded me of one of Robert Rankin’s fantasy novels: Armageddon – the Musical. This is an SF tale in which Elvis Presley and Barry the Time Sprout combat the forces of the Anti-Christ in a Britain devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Among the book’s villains are a sect of cannibals, the Devianti. Whereas other cannibals in SF books set in a post-Apocalyptic future tend to be an extrapolation of the poor White trash in the American Deep South, or violent urban subcultures, like the Bikers in the Mad Max films, the Devianti are true blue aristos. As an indication of their exalted social status, they wear their Barbour waxed jackets outside their anti-nuclear survival suits.

Going by what my friends said that day, I don’t think you have to travel into a future devastated by nuclear war to encounter mutants like them. They’re already here, deformed through generations of inbreeding, and with an insatiable thirst for blood and violence. This is shown in foxhunting, and in the massive bullying that goes on at the elite Public Schools. And they aren’t leaving it for a nuclear war to destroy Britain. Their policies are already doing that, as they seek to vent their hatred of Britain’s poor, sick and unemployed.

This ain’t Science Fiction any more. The mutants are here, and called Tories.