The Cathars, Knights Templars and Modern Fantasies – Disentangling Reality and Pseudohistory in Holy Blood, Holy Grail

I gate a little talk on Thursday about the real and fake history behind the 1980s book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Henry Lincoln and Richard Leigh, which inspired the Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code. This claimed that Jesus had secretly married Mary Magdalene, and the holy couple had moved to France and had children. This holy blood line became the Merovingian kings of early medieval France. Guarding this secret were the Cathars, the Knights Templars and a mysterious monastic organisation, the Priory of Sion. It’s nonsense, as the Cathars and their predecessors the ancient Gnostics and the Bogomil heretics in the Balkans certainly did not believe in any such thing, and the material about the Priory of Sion came from the bizarre fantasies of Pierre Plantard. Plantard was a strange figure who self-published a series of tracts proclaiming the existence of a series of secret monastic organisations with himself as their leader. At one time he claimed to be a count, as well as putting himself forward to be king, not just of France, but of a united Europe. Despite being pseudohistory and conspiratorial fantasy, Holy Blood, Holy Grail was massively popular, spawning a number of books continuing and expanding on its ideas, while the Dan Brown novel was filmed. The Cathars themselves are interesting, and there have been a number of serious historical works on them. Here are my notes for the talk, in which I demolish Lincoln, Leigh, and Baigent’s pseudohistory and talk about the reality behind it.

From Ancient Gnostics to the Cathars and the Priory of Zion: Disentangling History from Conspiracy Theories and Neo-Feudal Fantasies

Many of us can still remember the controversy from the 1980s to the beginning years of this century about Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln’s book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail. This claimed that orthodox Christianity was a lie, and that Jesus had married Mary Magdalene and moved to Gaul, where His children then went on to found the Merovingian dynasty of early medieval Frankish kings. This secret was known and preserved by the Cathars,, a heretical Christian sect attacked and wiped out in the Albigensian Crusades of the 13^th century, the Knights Templars and a mysterious modern secret society, the Priory of Zion. It also included speculation about the activities of a French priest, Berengere Sauniere, who decorated his north door with a sculpture of the demon Asmodeus. The Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh alleged that he had got his money from buried Visigothic treasure and was the leader, perhaps, of a Satanist coven.

Henry Lincoln

Michael Baigent

Henry Lincoln

None of this is true. The Cathars were a dualist sect who believed that matter was evil and the creation of an evil god, and so Christ and the Virgin were both spiritual beings. Their beliefs are very well known to scholars, having been studied for decades. One of the earliest works on them is Sir Stephen Runciman’s The Medieval Manichee. They are ultimately derived from ancient Graeco-Roman Gnosticism. The ideas about a secret feudal organisation, the Priory of Zion, ultimately comes from the bizarre fantasies of Pierre Plantard. Plantard wrote a series of self-published books claiming the existence of a series of secret monastic orders, of which he was, naturally, one of the leading members. The interpretation of the head of the demon over the de Sauniere’s north porch door as indicating Satanic allegiance is also completely mistaken, and ignores the function of this part of the church in orthodox, catholic Christian belief and practise. And the stuff about Christ’s bloodline is just something that the three made up themselves in order to make the conspiracy hang together.

Pierre Plantard

Gnosticism

Ancient religious system mixing Platonic and Zoroastrian elements. Zoroastrianism ancient religion of Persia, founded by Zoroaster/Zarathustra. Faith still survives in Iran and India, where Zoroastrians known as Parsees. Zoroastrians now seen as monotheists, but previously regarded by religious scholars as dualists. Believed in two gods: Ahura Mazda, a god of good and light, and Ahriman or the Druj, the god of darkness, and evil. Ahriman responsible for evil in the world and created the evil or unpleasant animals, like scorpions. At the end of time the saviour, the Saoshyant, will come and there will be an apocalyptic war between good and evil in which evil will be vanquished.

Different sects of Gnosticism, some Christian – Marcion, Valentinus, or include Christian elements, such as Manichaeanism after Mani of Babylon. Others pagan, such as Simon Magus, Poimandres. Gnostic gospels and scriptures discovered in 1947, but these already known about through writings of early Christian church fathers.

Gnosticism states 2 gods – one of world of light, spirit and good; other of matter, darkness and evil. Humanity’s true home is in the world of spirit. However, war between good and evil gods, humans fall from world of spirit into prison of material world, where ruled by the evil archons. Good god sends prophet, such as Mani or Jesus, to instruct people in the teachings and rituals through which they can escape world of matter after death and return to the world of light. Dualist Christian sects continued to appear – Messalians in 4^th century Edessa and Armenia; Priscillianists in Spain; Paulicians in 6^th century Armenia, enter Byzantine Empire 640. Formed warrior class between Byzantines and Arabs.

Ancient Gems depicting the Gnostic Demiurge, the creator of the world of matter.

The Bogomils, The Cathars’ Precursors

10^th century emergence of Bogomils. Founded by priest Bogomil, ‘Beloved of God’ or ‘Worthy of God’s Pity’ or ‘One Who entreats God’, founds sect in Macedonia. Believed world created by Satan, who was the rebellious elder son of God. Satan also author of the Old Testament and Mosaic Law. The good God sent his younger son, Jesus, to redeem humanity. However, Christ only human in appearance, performed no miracles. Only New Testament and Gospels true word of God. Reject Church ritual, including feast days, veneration of the Cross and saints, use of vestments. Meat and wine forbidden, along with marriage. Bogomil community divided into two classes, ordinary believers and the Elect. Only prayer used Lord’s Prayer. Bulgaria conquered by Byzantium 1018, heresy spreads into Byzantine Empire. Second Bulgarian Empire founded 1218, Bogomils prosper, becomes state religion in Bosnia.

Question of connection between Gnostic sects, Bogomils and Cathars. Possible that Cathars result of independent Dualist speculation in West following general tendencies towards asceticism and belief in the evil of this world in Christianity. Groups of heretics begin appearing in 10^th century onwards. First group that are recognisably Cathar, although not called that, appear in Cologne in 1143. Cathars not just in France, but spread to Lombardy and Tuscany in Italy. 1163 apprehension of another group of Cathars in Cologne, doctrines described by monk Eckbert of Schonau in 13 sermons, describes them as ‘Cathars’, ‘Piphles’ or ‘Weavers’. During Albigensian Crusade allegations of devil worship and orgies, including homosexuality. Connection with Bulgaria resulted in them being called Bougres in France, which became Buggers in English.

Cathar beliefs and practices known through series of works by churchmen and lay people, such as The Higher Star of Salvo Burci of Piacnza, A Debate Between a Catholic and a Patarene, Summa Against Manichaean Heretics, also works by James Capelli, Moneta of Cremona, Rainerius of Sacconi, heretic who converted to Catholicism, Anselm of Alessandria, Bernard Gui, In 13^th and 14^th centuries Cathars adopt a numb er of Bogomil books: The Ascension/Vision of Isaiah, The Secret Supper, Cathar ritual texts in Latin and Provencal, A ‘Manichaean’ Treatise, The Book of the Two Principles, A Vindication of the Church of God  and A Gloss on the Lord’s Prayer.

Different sects of Cathars with different names, but generally Cathars believed in two spiritual powers: the good God, the God of Jesus Christ and the spiritual world, and evil god, the god of matter. One group believed that only one God, the son of whom was Satan. Lucifer rebels, is cast out of heaven, and creates world of matter. Places in this world bodies of Adam and Eve, and imprisons angel in the body of Adam. Human souls either spirits derived from first prisoner, or souls which had already been created and introduced into human bodies as these created. Good God sent Jesus with message of salvation. But possibility all would be saved, as people repeatedly reincarnated. Rejection of the Old Testament as work of evil god, viewed John the Baptist as agent of Satan.

Absolute Dualists believed two distinct gods ruling separate universes, spirit and matter, good and evil. Lucifer, son of the evil god, made way to universe of good god, becomes steward over the angels, urges them to rebel against God. Battle in heaven, resulting in expulsion of souls of angels, although their bodies remain in heaven. Christ comes to save the souls of the fallen angels on Earth, which Cathars viewed as hell. Events of Christ’s life happened in other world, Christ never appeared in this world except, perhaps, as St. Paul. Souls could be reincarnated to achieve final salvation. Some Cathars objected to killing of animals, as these could contain reincarnated souls. God of Old Testament seen as evil, but this mixed with respect for Prophets. Absolute Dualists saw Christ, Mary and John the Baptist as angels, mitigated Dualists saw her as human woman. Also believed Christ really incarnate.Community divided between ‘perfecti’ and ordinary believers. Perfecti extremely austere, vegetarians abstaining from meat, milk, eggs, cheese and sex. Reject sacraments as matter evil, replaced by the consolamentum, the laying on of hands. Fasted on certain days of the week, and for three forty day periods during the year. Cathars led by bishops, aided by elder and younger sons, who would succeed him. Below them deacons, responsible for hospices for the perfecti, general pastoral care and ritual confessions of believers.

Medieval illustration of Knights Templars fighting Saracens

The Knights Templars

Military order of warrior monks founded during the First Crusade with sister order, the Knights Hospitallers. Dissolved on the orders of the Franch king on charges of homosexuality and worshipping demonic idol, Baphomet. But Knights Templars rich and unpopular. Did not pay taxes on their land to the king, rich from banking. Lived as country gentlemen after expulsion of the Crusaders from the Holy Land. French monarchy bankrupt and needed money. Edward II also pressured into dissolving the order, but originally did not believe the charges against them.

Templars acted as a law unto themselves. One of the Kings of Jerusalem had also demanded their dissolution after defeat by Muslims in battle caused by Templars attacking too early.Possible that Templars had picked up weird Gnostic beliefs in Holy Land, but unlikely. Reported activities do not sound similar to Mandaeans, surviving Gnostic sect in Iraq, or Yezidis, for example

Pierre Plantard

Born 1920.1942 editor of free magazine, Vaincre claiming to be organ of neo-medieval chivalric order, the Alpha Galantes, dedicating to creating true socialism, 1^st issues discusses Atlantis, Celtic wisdom and other esoteric subjects. 1941 police report stating that ‘Plantard, who boasts of having links with numerous politicians, seems to be one of those dotty, pretentious young men who run more or less fictitious groups in an effort to look important and who are taking advantage of the present trend towards taking a greater interest in young people in order to attract the government’s attention.’ Plantard arrested and tortured by Gestapo 1943, but released 1944. Married Anne-Lea Hisler 1946, 1947 moves near Lake Leman in Switzerland. Possible at this time joined Masonic Grande Loge Alpina. 1956 starts publishing Circuit and details of the constitution of future Priory of Zion. June 1956 public announcement of the existence of Priory of Zion to sub-prefecture of Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. No evidence that it has any members apart from Plantard. 1958 – Plantard writes letter on behalf of Paris Central Committee of Public Safety urging people to vote for de Gaulle. Circuit resumes publication with articles on Atlantis, Astrology etc. 196os Plantard and wife publish large number of books and pamphlets, although possible that these only exist as the copies in the Bibliotheteque National. Possible Plantard owned land around Rennes-le-Chateau. Comes into contact with Gerard de Sede, writer of popular non-fiction books, publish The Templars Are Among Us in 1942.

Berengere Sauniere, Rennes-le-Chateau’s priest

1962 publication of Robert Charroux’s Treasures of the World. This had chapter on Berengere Sauniere and Rennes-le-Chateau. Question of where Sauniere got his immense wealth – Charroux concluded he had probably uncovered trove of medieval Treasure. Mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau and Sauniere first appeared in Depeche du Midi in 1956. From the end of 50s Plantard visiting the area. 1960s Plantard publishes A Merovingian Treasure at Rennes-le-Chateau, but this plagiarised from Charroux’s book. Plantard also claimed Sauniere had found parchments and Biblical texts with encoded genealogies, Rennes-le-Chateau major town in Middle Ages, and home to Dagobert II, king of Austrasia. Dagobert regained throne, but assassinated in 679 with no descendants. Plantard then claimed Dagobert’s son, Sigisbert, had survived, and bloodline continued to present day. This intended to promote Plantard as king of France and United States of Europe. Plantard deposits folder Dossiers Secrets d’Henri Lobineau, complied by Phillippe Toscan du Plantier, at Bibliotheque National, claiming that Priory of Zion founded 1099 as group within Knights Templars, from whom they separated in 1188. Grand Masters included Robert Fludd, Leonardo da Vinci, Victor Hugo, Claude Debussy and Jean Cocteau. Comparison with Plantard’s other publications and works suggest common authorship with Lobineau. Further publications by Plantard claiming that series of deaths connected with Rennes-le-Chateau, but Plantard alters times and other details to make it all fit.

Enter Henry Lincoln.

Lincoln BBC scriptwriter, read de Sede’s book on Rennes-le-Chateau, decided it would make good 20 minute feature, intrigued by hidden message about Dagobert. Contacted de Sede, who supplied him with photographs from Plantard, introduces Lincoln to Bibliotheque National, reads La Vraie Langue Celtique by Sauniere’s friend Henri Boudet, work of eccentric philology, claimed Adam and Eve spoke English. Plantard writes preface to 1978 reprint, claims that this contained hidden message about Rennes-le-Chateau. De Sede deciphered hidden message of second coded parthment, which is anagram of inscription on 18^th century tomb at Rennes-le-Chateau. 1979 Lincoln meets Plantard, who tells him that parchments faked by his friend and collaborator Phillippe de Cherisey for a TV programme.

First documentary by Lincoln, The Lost Treasure of Jerusalem?, broadcast 1972 simply argues Templars had taken treasure from Holy Land to France, where it was later discovered by Sauniere. 1974 Lincoln follows this up with The Priest, The Painter and The Devil, claims proportions of tomb used in Poussin’s Les Bergers d’ Arcadie showing tomb similar to one at Rennes-le-Chateau the same as inverted pentagram, Sauniere therefore leader of Satanic sect. Lincoln later met Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who were interested in the Templars. For 3^rd film, The Shadow of Templars, try to contact the Priory of Zion and Plantard, but researcher got contradictory and conflicting results. Eventually got meeting with Plantard and his entourage in Paris cinema. About same time Plantard gives himself fake feudal titles Pierre Plantard de Saint-Clair, count of Saint-Clair and Count of Rhedae. About this time Lincoln formed idea that real treasure was Christ’s bloodline, as described in 1982 Holy Blood, Holy Grail – ‘San Greal’ really referred to Sang Real, holy blood. This taken up by other paranormal writers and researchers. Lionel Fanthorpe speculated that the Grail could be alienated artefact, David Wood thought that geometry around Rennes-le-Chateau showed alien race, the Elohim, who came from Sirius, had established base on Mars. Had interbred with ape-like human females to creature modern humans as slave race. The inscription ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ can be translated as ‘Even in Arcadia I, death, am present’ – reminder of omnipresence of death.

1977 appearance of the tract, The Circle of Ulysses by Jean Delaude claiming that after Cocteau’s death, he was succeeded as Grand Master by Abbe Ducaud-Bourget, French traditional bishop and opponent of reform.

From April 1982 onwards Lincoln had meetings with Plantard in Paris. At May 1983 meeting Plantard claimed that three very distinguished Englishmen had imported into England in 1956 Sauniere’s parchments showing that the House of Plantard was the descendants of Dagobert II. Supplied photos, which were found to be forgeries. January 1984 Plantard sent Lincoln copy of official Priory of Zion document accusing Jan-Luc Chaumeil, author of critical work on Priory of Zion which attacked Plantard, of receiving documents about the Priory stolen from de Cherisey in 1967. This supposedly signed by four directors of the First National Bank of Chicago. But one of them was dead, and another one had never heard of the Priory. Further research indicated that their signatures had come from an official stamp from the Bank that had somehow got in the possession of Plantard. Three weeks later Plantard sent Baigent, Lincoln and Leigh letters to the Priory announcing that he was resigning because of ill health. This later followed by tract, The Scandals of the Priory of Zion by ‘Cornelius’, linking Plantard to Italian Mafia, the P2 Fascist Masonic lodge and the assassination of Roberto Calvi of the Banco Abrosiano.

Not the end of stories about Priory of Zion. In the trio’s second book, The Messianic Legacy, they talk about reception of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and questions by readers about possible connections to Shroud of Turin. October 1988 carbon 14 dating suggested the Shroud late medieval forgery, interviews given about this on radio by Lynn Picknett, who was having affair with Ian Wilson, best known of Shroud’s supporters. Picknett then received series of letters from ‘Giovanni’ claiming Shroud really pioneering alchemical daguerreotype by Leonard da Vinci.’Giovanni’ claimed to be member of dissident faction of Priory de Zion, advised her to read Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Hints that ‘Giovanni’ connected to Plantard. Idea that da Vinci forged the Shroud suggested a few month earlier by Anthony Harris in The Sacred Virgin and the Holy Whore, who claimed Christ really a woman. Picknett eventually met Giovanni, who wanted research passed to Ian Wilson. But affair had ended. Nevertheless it was included in book she wrote with Clive Prince, Turin Shroud: In Whose Image?

2003 appearance of Dan Brown’s thriller based on Holy Blood, Holy Grail, The Da Vinci Code. This filmed, and Brown also sued by Lincoln Baigent and Leigh for plagiarism. But spawns series of books supporting the Da Vinci Code, with names like Breaking the Da Vinci Code, Cracking the Da Vinci Code, The Da Vinci Code Decoded.

The statue of the demon Asmodeus in Rennes-le-Chateau’s church

Conspiracy theory also sent up in Private Eye with skit asking ‘What is the connection between the inscription in Poussin’s Les Folles de Engleterre, ‘Et in Burlington Arcadia Ego’, and a sect of Merovingian Templars who drank the blood of gerbils?Question of figure of demon Asmodeus over north door of the church at Rennes-le-Chateau, with inscription ‘Terribilis est locus iste’ ‘This place is terrible’. In church architecture, north seat of Satan and demons, as stated in Isaiah 14: 13. During baptism children traditionally exorcised, during which small north door opened to let the Devil out. Medieval clerestory windows at Fairford in Gloucestershire how tyrants and demons on north side, saints and angels on the south. Continental Catholic churches often have figure of demon over north doors. Latin phrase ‘terribilis est locus iste’ said by Jacob after dream in which he saw angels going up and down ladder to heaven. Used as Introit to the benediction consecrating a church

Conclusion

Conspiracy and claims about bloodline of Christ in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and related books has zero to do with what the Cathars and the Knights Templars actually believed. TV series and book part of general trend in western culture after the War of scepticism towards traditional society and religion. Interest in Gnosticism as alternative forms of Christianity suppressed by Roman Catholic church. Interest also in the Cathars through Arthur Guirdham and his book about group of people remembering having been Cathars in a previous life. Holy Blood, Holy Grail also become part of wider conspiracy speculation about aliens, though these also influenced by ideas of Erich von Daniken about alien gods creating human race.However intriguing, and whatever the value of Dan Brown’s book as a thriller, this is all very much pseudo-history and archaeology, based essentially on Plantard’s weird fantasies. The Cathars and the Gnostics are interesting in themselves, and should be studied for what they were, not because of the conspiracy theories of late 20^th and early 21^st century writers. Their books tell us more about the paranoia and spiritual needs and urges of our time than theirs.

Testing the Telepathic Theory of Ghosts

CJ has now put up a fifth part to his ongoing series of articles exploring the nature of ghosts, and in particular the SPR’s theory that they’re telepathic projections from a mind or living brain, and suggests how this could be tested experimentally. He begins with a literary nod to the summer-y weather around Cheltenham and the Cotswolds when he was writing with a quote from INXS. Cheltenham really is in a beautiful part of the Gloucestershire countryside, and walking through it, or simply going through it on a train you can feel a connection to the great poets of the English countryside, even if you’re in a different county to A Shropshire Lad. But on to the spooks.

CJ wonders what state of mind you have to be in to see ghosts, and suggests that it might be a good exercise to compare what spooks experienced after the consumption of a few pints look like compared with the more respectable apparitions recorded by the Society for Psychical Research in their Census of Hallucinations. This is partly inspired by his own academic research on drugs and religious experience. This was the subject of his dissertation at college, and it is a serious topic of investigation. Many cultures use psychedelics and what the Hippies euphemistically described as ‘mind altering substances’ as part of their religious rituals. There have been many articles in the popular Fortean and New Age literature about shamanism and magic mushrooms, or at least there were in the 1990s when Terence McKenna was picking up where Timothy Leary et al left off. The Maya of Guatemala use powerful psychedelics in the Chaac Chaac ceremony, where they seek to persuade the rain god, Chaac, to send the rains for the next growing season. A Channel 4 documentary on the history and cultures of the Caribbean nations reported that, contrary to expectations, the people of one of the islands still carried a large amount of the genetic heritage of the pre-Columbian indigenous people, the Taino. They were now extinct, but had not all been exterminated by the invading Spaniards. Some of these people were attempting to reclaim their indigenous heritage by practising the pagan rituals of their ancestors. This included a ceremony in which the priest or shaman snorted a highly psychoactive substance which caused intense pain as well as other effects to enable him to get onto the plane of the gods. It was illegal, so only the leader of the revived pagan cult did it, and the camera discretely looked away.

These are extremely powerful and potentially lethal substances. The drug used in the Chaac Chaac is an emetic and purgative, and so the worshippers spend the next day after the ritual in their hammocks completely exhausted, recovering from the experience. There was also the case a few years ago of a backpacker, who died in the Amazon trying out one of the shamanic plants, and whose associates were charged with his manslaughter. Timothy Leary argued that LSD use by the general population would be beneficial in his The Politics of Ecstasy, and some of the support for the legalisation and use of recreational drugs by the psychedelic movement was based on the idea that drugs could recreate and give the user an experience similar to that of religious visions. There are dangers to drug use, both personally and at the societal level. People can suffer disturbing flashbacks from prolonged LSD use and there have been deaths from people taking a supposed ‘legal high’ someone had cooked up in their bathtub. As a result, some of those still involved in the psychedelic scene have said that perhaps it would have been better if the use of drugs like LSD had been confined to intellectuals rather than the general population, as initially advocated by people like Aldous Huxley.

Fortunately, CJ states that you don’t have to go that far. Huxley also felt that you could achieve profound altered states of consciousness simply through alcohol. He therefore impishly suggests that one particular experiment in chemically enhanced religious or supernatural experienced could be fruitfully replicated by taking various peeps from one of the psychical research groups round a pub crawl of Hitchin before taking them to a very atmospheric, spooky ruined chapel out in the woods.

The problem with experiments like these is that, while I’ve no doubt people have seen genuine spectres while under the influence, the presence of the drugs in their system, even if it’s only alcohol, raises questions about the objective truth of the experience. Have they really seen a ghost, or was it the product of the drugs or alcohol? Years ago there was a question on Radio 4’s long running panel show, the News Quiz, about a drunk driving case or similar where the judge had made some kind of weird comment about green ferrets. This led to jokes about whether this no doubt worthy member of the judiciary saw green ferrets when he was blotto. People can see strange things when drunk, which have their origin entirely in the brain’s neurochemistry rather than the supernatural. Unless somewhere on the astral plane there really are green ferrets, waiting for the right moment to manifest to drunk drivers or respectable judges, who’ve just had one drop o QC sherry too many with their meals in chambers.

But nevertheless, people have had supernatural experiences after a convivial evening’s drinking, and were naturally concerned to state that whatever it was they saw was not the product of the demon drink. One example is in Robert Hunt’s two-volume book on Cornish folklore. Written in the 19th century, one the stories is of two miners who had spent the evening half-pinting at the local pub. The two stated that, despite this, they weren’t drunk when they decided to go home. As they were passing the Gump, a particularly rocky and eerie part of the county they were overtaken by a dark rider, who urged them to follow him to watch the wrestling. They did so, and saw huge forms emerging from the rocks, which began to grapple with each other. One of them threw the other giant on the ground with such force that it looked like he was dying. At which point one of the miners rushed up to whisper in his ear ‘the hope of every Christian’. At this the lights went out, there were screams and cries and sounds of running, and the dark horseman retreated so that all that could be seen was his glowing eyes. The men then made their way home in a state of terror.

It’s hard to know now what the reality of the incident was, though it contains the folkloric motifs that giants are an anti-Christian force that, like the fairies, nevertheless persist in hidden abodes. The horseman in his black clothing seems to be the Devil in a form clearly influenced by local folklore. In Somerset folklore he’s supposed to haunt Whistman’s wood on Exmoor, hunting the souls of the dead. The horseman’s glowing eyes, which are described as moving around the darkness, look to me as if there’s a connection with later UFO lore. But the relevant aspect to all this is that the men had been drinking, and were possibly a bit tipsy, but not drunk.

CJ then goes on to ponder what kind of mental state is best conducive to seeing the spooks. Is it boredom, as suggested by the great psychical researcher D. Scott Rogo, who said he associated some of his experiences with boredom. CJ states that he can’t stand tedium, and so did all manner of daft, romantic and Dionysian things to escape it, because even embarrassment and rejection were better. He also states that apparently he has a high level of absorption, which means that he can become totally immersed in something to the exclusion of everything around him. He also states that when trapped he retreats into his thoughts if trapped.

I think I can understand this. The late Irish comedian Sean Hughes in one of his routines describes doing all manner of crazy things, driven by the strange moods he experienced as an adolescent at school. Scientists used to believe that the brain’s structure was set during childhood. This changed in the ’90s when they discovered that during adolescence the brain starts re-wiring itself. It was suggested that this explained teenage moodiness, as well as the cry ‘You just don’t understand me’. This came from teenagers’ sudden inability to understand their elders thanks to the rewiring that was going on in their heads.

I recall experiencing something similar. Unlike CJ, I’m an obsessive clock-watcher and admire his ability to lose himself in an activity or train of thought so that he loses track of time. There were times in my adolescence when I felt very depressed – the world seemed bleak and flat, and the grave our ultimate destination – that I’d also act stupidly or madly in order to cheer myself up. I have an odd feeling that some of the stunts done by some of the Surrealists may have come from the same sense of crushing despair. The French proto-Surrealist Alfred Jarry is a particular example. He used to perform a number of practical jokes. One of these was painting himself green all over, and then going into his usual Parisian cafe. This was to startle the maitre d’ and the other customers. Unfortunately for Jarry, one of his friends got wind of this, and told everyone there about it. Thus, when Jarry turned up he simply got the usual greetings and possibly nothing from the barman except the question ‘Your usual, Monsieur Jarry?’ Unable to get a rise out of anyone, he went home. These and his other pranks give me the impression that he may have been a depressive, carrying them out to stave off the despair. I also felt at time that I should somehow be enjoying every minute, because ultimately we’re only here once. A few years ago I read a few books on Phenomenology, which I previously thought was a branch of philosophy but which now seems to be an academic discipline in its own right. There was a passage in it which described the miserable feelings Jean-Paul Sartre had one day when he was suffering a terrible cold, sitting on a park bench in Vienna when he was studying medicine there. This seemed extremely similar to the way I’d felt at times when I was secondary schoolboy. Does this suggest Existentialism is based on the common sense of despair felt by a lot of adolescents? If you poked your average teenage Goth or Emo, would they be an existentialist like Sartre and Merleau-Ponty?

After reassuring us that he is pragmatic and analytical in many ways, and definitely not away with the fairies, CJ explains why he’s telling us so much about his own psychology. He states that this is partly because he wishes to offer himself as an example, but also because psychology began with introspection. Phenomenology still does. From what I understand, as founded by Edmund Husserl in Vienna, Phenomenology begins with a rigorous analysis of one’s own consciousness before moving on to the external world, and brackets what it cannot explain or reconcile with the other objects of consciousness. But it strikes me that parapsychology is acutely concerned with matters outside of normal psychology, such as whether consciousness arises from the brain or exists independently, the nature of consciousness and whether the subjective is intimately connected to the external world so that it can have real effects on it.

Now I wonder if subjective states do affect supernatural experiences. CJ had already been hunting spooks before he came to College, sparked by the experience he and his friends had at Thetford Priory. He was also interested in ritual magic and Aleister Crowley, as were a couple of the other students. This made for some very interesting conversations. I have an interest in world mythology and had studied medieval history at school. I was very interested in what the Cathars had believed, and had flicked through a book of contemporary medieval texts on the Cathars and their beliefs in the school’s ‘A’ Level library. For anyone taken in by the ‘Holy Blood, Holy Grail’ and ‘Da Vinci Code’ nonsense, these are going to come as a shock. Far from teaching that Christ was the mortal progenitor of the early medieval French Merovingian dynasty, the Cathars taught that Christ and the Virgin Mary were pure spirit. The sect may have held orgies, but the religious leadership – the perfecti – who could include women, abjured sex and were rigorously celibate. It was therefore fascinating to talk to CJ on these subjects, and I did have some spooky experiences at this time.

One was a Sunday morning, when I heard sounds of people working on the roads coming through the walls of my room. It sounds like there’s a straightforward explanation there, but as it was a Sunday I wonder if anyone was working on the roads. There was also an incident where I was in my room working on an assignment or just reading, I can’t remember which, when I heard loud banging on the wall coming from the room next door. Eventually I got annoyed and opened the door ready to have a word with the lad in that room, only to find him just outside about to have a word about it with me. I don’t know what caused it. It could simply be that someone was making a noise on the walls elsewhere in building, and through some freak of acoustics it sounded like it was coming from the wall between our rooms. But I doubt this explanation as well. These incidents and others make me wonder if a prior interest in the supernatural makes a person more open to a supernatural incident. I’ve also wondered before now if some people suffering from mental illness may also be genuine centres of supernatural activity. As if something from their disordered inner consciousness somehow leaks out into the objective world. CJ’s and Becky’s research has refuted has refuted the old assumption that poltergeist cases centre around adolescent girls. They don’t, but I wonder if some of them are centred around those with some form of mental condition, which also helps to disguise the supernatural activity around them.

As for researching the general state of mind of people seeing ghosts, I think you could possibly get an idea of some simply by looking at some of manuals of necromancy dating from the Middle Ages and later. Necromancy means the conjuration of the spirits of the dead, and looking through these grimoires should give an insight into the mental state of those using the spells, or at least what they may have hoped to achieve when doing so. But this obviously only applies by those purposefully seeking to make contact with the dead, like those who now go to seances or attend Spiritualist meetings. Most cases seem to be spontaneous and unintended. For example, one of Dad’s stories from work was how one of his friends came back one day shaken from a store room. He said he had just seen one of the managers appear down there, despite the fact that the man had left work and died sometime previously. I don’t know quite what the poor fellow had been thinking about before he saw this apparent ghost, but I’m reasonably sure that it was simply the job at hand, or perhaps what he was going to have for tea or do at the weekend. And I think that in this is probably true of most other spontaneous cases. The witnesses had simply been going about their business thinking of nothing in particular, or of prosaic, humdrum matters. In some cases they only realise they have encountered a ghost when it suddenly disappears or walks through a wall or does something similarly supernatural. Sometimes the environment where the ghost is encountered has an ominous, spooky atmosphere that makes people wish to avoid it, and this might act as a trigger to some who go on to see a spook there. But other people may just look around and leave, glad to be away from the location but not having seen anything.

There are also other rare mental states that can also give rise to apparent ghosts. One of these is fatigue. One of the cases in Hilary Evan’s compendious Seeing Ghosts is of a pair of spectral legs seen walking round the corner of a farm in Cumbria by a woman staying there in the 19th century. I seem to recall reading that deep fatigue can leave people seeing hallucinations of individual body parts. It might be that the female percipient of the disembodied legs in this case was also extremely tired, and so her mind had started to project that fatigue into her vision as the pair of walking legs.

Similarly, the Fortean Times a few decades ago covered the case of a trucker, who was astonished and shaken to see his doppelganger driving a truck past him in the other direction. The magazine reported that there were several cases of this a year, again arising through an unusual but definitely not pathological mental state. In cases like these, it’s important to assess the physical and psychological state of the percipient to rule out entirely rational causes behind the apparition before suggesting that they experienced anything supernatural.

CJ then ends his article by suggesting a way to test the telepathic theory of ghosts experimentally. This is similar to the experiments with Zener cards, in which the sender tried to send an image from a randomly shuffled set of cards to a receiver. If you got over 25 per cent correct – the number that would be expected to be correct guesses from random chance – then the experimenters may well be psychic. In this case, the sender is trying to project a telepathic image of him- or herself according to the suggestion that ghosts are hallucinations projected by a mind or brain. In this case, he suggests that the sender should sit in semi-darkness facing a full length mirror of themselves, because, as he said in part four, most people don’t really know how they look. In order to help them, the sender could use wine or music, or whatever works for them. To check whether this is really working, they could wear something distinctive.

The receiver, on the other hand, should sit quietly in near darkness waiting for the ‘ghost’ of the sender to appear. There should be a thirty minute window selected for the experiment, and both sender and receiver should record their impressions. These are vigil conditions, or near to them, as done on ghost investigations and for the same reasons.

I think this is an excellent suggestion, and worth doing, but I think it goes only part way to testing the hypothesis. Yes, it would show that people are capable of sending telepathic impressions of themselves, and this might replicate crisis apparitions where the receiver has a mental impression of the person in danger. But there’s more to hauntings than simple mental impressions. People don’t perceive ghosts as simple mental impressions like the Zener cards. They see themselves as entities in their material, objective surroundings. Perhaps a better attempt at replicating the ghost experience would involve some form of astral projection. In this case, the sender should imagine themselves standing in front of the receiver while also trying to send a telepathic message of their presence near them. This is mentally cumbersome, I realise, but if it worked should result in the receiver seeing the sender in their surroundings, rather than as a mental image in their head.

Once again, CJ has presented some extremely stimulating ideas on the nature of ghosts and human receptivity to spiritual or telepathic impressions.