The Beginning
Strange things were happening in our house, much of which I dismissed as natural occurrences or in many cases electrical malfunctions, much to Rosie's annoyance. But in all honesty I was a little in denial of what may actually be happening, until one day I got something unanswerable enough to convince me that perhaps there was a little more than what met the eye! There were a couple of incidences that Rosie told me about before stuff started to happen. The first of which was our cat, Oscar, was in the garden looking up at the empty rotary line. He was very intent on seeing what was "up there", trying to climb up, encircling the post but not ever taking his eye off whatever it was that he was looking at. His head movement was rapid like he was watching a fly. It was a hot midsummers day (would you believe!?) Rosie was in the kitchen doing the washing up, watching Oscar through the open French doors. Once she had finished she went out to see what he was doing. She picked him up to see exactly where his attention was focused, he seemed to be watching something above the rotary line and as Rosie picked him up he started to paw at the air. Thinking he had gone slightly mad she put him back down on the ground where he continued as he was before. As I said when she told me this story I just figured there was something that he could see in the air that he was intent on getting, perhaps he was....
Rosie returned to the kitchen to start on the dinner for when I got home from work. About fifteen minutes later she she heard something in the hallway and felt a presence behind her. Thinking I was home early from work she said "Oh, you're home early!", there was no reply but she was very aware of a strong presence. Realising the kids were playing outside and had left the front door open she thought that maybe someone had slipped into the house. She was feeling anxious now. She finally had plucked up the courage to turn around to see who was there only to be relieved that actually there wasn't anyone, not in the physical anyway! What she did see was a definite cylindrical, black fog about four foot long ascend up through the ceiling. Again, although I was intrigued by the story I didn't give it much consideration.
This was the beginning of a string of occurrences that followed, many of which I dismissed:
- Very early one morning the surround sound system came on waking up me and Rosie (the controls were away, no chance of the cat accidentally turning it on) .
- The shower came on (there was nobody upstairs)
- The screen saver on the computer would randomly come on even though to do so required the button on the mouse to be clicked.
- The radio changed stations.
One Saturday evening Rosie, the kids and I were sitting in the living room watching TV. Suddenly and without warning the window nearest the telly opened, not just a little, I'd say a good six inches! Being so close to the telly it caught our eye, I turned and looked at Rosie who was turning to look at me, there was a moments silence with just a questioning look exchanged. As the kids were there I did not want to say anything in fear of alarming them, but I needn't have worried because my eldest daughter said "How did that window open by itself?". I quickly made up an excuse about it being windy but even a strong wind, if there had been one, would not have blown a shut, double glazed, UPVC, window open. She was wise to the fact that there was no wind and that I did not have a rational explanation. I didn't have much choice other than to accept that perhaps, just maybe, there was something more than some dicky wiring in our house!
Making Contact
We decided that something had to be done as the kids were starting to become aware of some strange goings on and I was running out of excuses. We got in touch with our friend Alan who had previously mentioned an attachment of a Young Girl to Rosie (1). He advised us to try to establish contact with the spirit, which we were presuming was the young girl, by asking her to communicate with us via tapping or whatever else we could get. If we could establish contact and found that she required "rescuing" he would come over and help us out.
Rosie mentioned all this to the development circle that she was attending at the time and some of the girls there showed an interest in coming over and trying to establish contact with the girl. We made arrangements and before long my house had become the venue of a seance for contacting a spirit residing in my home! Various things were picked up prior to the seance commencing:
We started by asking for a sign as to whether there was any Spirit present in the room. We did manage to get a couple of little taps but they were quite quiet and it was hard to deceiver their source. As this method was not proving to be very reliable one of the sitters suggested using a glass, we were hesitant but the rest of the group assured us that it was perfectly safe and that they do it all the time. So we eventually decided to go ahead and give it a go.
I'd seen this on Most Haunted before, if spirit wanted to answer yes it would spin the glass, for no it would not move. I'd never tried this before and I was a little sceptical when I had seen it before, but it wasn't long before I was convinced that this phenomena was most certainly possible! As the questions flowed and the glass moved I got quite excited, I looked at everyones fingertips to see if they were applying pressure and thus pushing the glass themselves but it appeared not! I was truly impressed with what was going on. (2)
Through the sitters clairvoyance and the movement of the glass we managed to establish a few things. Firstly practically all our dead relatives wanted to come by to say hello and I also had a visit from an old school music teacher who didn't seem to want to leave, funny he hardly noticed me in school.
Finally we got to where we wanted to be, we were making contact with the residing spirit. We established contact with a girl who said that she does visit our house. We asked if it was her that opened the window but the glass did not move, it was a no!? After that her energy seemed to fade only to be followed by another stronger energy. This time it was a male. We asked if he was grounded to which the reply was no. At this time Rosie had started to see images of railway lines followed by the image of a young man dressed in black with a coal black face. She didn't connect the two and started to dismiss this as her own thoughts. The other sitters in the circle seemed hooked on the idea of a farmer or a farming connection. There was some sort of connection with fire mentioned too, perhaps he died in a fire? So although the glass moving via "Spirit" was an amazing phenomena the seance had not actually resolved very much at all. (3)
About a week later Rosie was watching telly and there was a program about Steam Locomotives, watching the program she started to piece together the clues from the seance; the railway lines, the coal faced man, the fire, as she created an image she got a young man, about 17 years old, dressed in black with a red handkerchief tied round his neck and she also got the word "Stoker". Rosie wasn't familiar with what a 'Stoker' was so looked it up on Google to find that it has a connection with locomotives, they're also known as Firemen.
Soon after our seance Rosie left her circle and eventually joined with another.
Rosie mentioned all this to the development circle that she was attending at the time and some of the girls there showed an interest in coming over and trying to establish contact with the girl. We made arrangements and before long my house had become the venue of a seance for contacting a spirit residing in my home! Various things were picked up prior to the seance commencing:
- It was decided that although there was a presence of a girl there was a stronger male energy in the house
- One of the girls picked up a gentlemen who she believed to be a farmer
We started by asking for a sign as to whether there was any Spirit present in the room. We did manage to get a couple of little taps but they were quite quiet and it was hard to deceiver their source. As this method was not proving to be very reliable one of the sitters suggested using a glass, we were hesitant but the rest of the group assured us that it was perfectly safe and that they do it all the time. So we eventually decided to go ahead and give it a go.
I'd seen this on Most Haunted before, if spirit wanted to answer yes it would spin the glass, for no it would not move. I'd never tried this before and I was a little sceptical when I had seen it before, but it wasn't long before I was convinced that this phenomena was most certainly possible! As the questions flowed and the glass moved I got quite excited, I looked at everyones fingertips to see if they were applying pressure and thus pushing the glass themselves but it appeared not! I was truly impressed with what was going on. (2)
Through the sitters clairvoyance and the movement of the glass we managed to establish a few things. Firstly practically all our dead relatives wanted to come by to say hello and I also had a visit from an old school music teacher who didn't seem to want to leave, funny he hardly noticed me in school.
Finally we got to where we wanted to be, we were making contact with the residing spirit. We established contact with a girl who said that she does visit our house. We asked if it was her that opened the window but the glass did not move, it was a no!? After that her energy seemed to fade only to be followed by another stronger energy. This time it was a male. We asked if he was grounded to which the reply was no. At this time Rosie had started to see images of railway lines followed by the image of a young man dressed in black with a coal black face. She didn't connect the two and started to dismiss this as her own thoughts. The other sitters in the circle seemed hooked on the idea of a farmer or a farming connection. There was some sort of connection with fire mentioned too, perhaps he died in a fire? So although the glass moving via "Spirit" was an amazing phenomena the seance had not actually resolved very much at all. (3)
About a week later Rosie was watching telly and there was a program about Steam Locomotives, watching the program she started to piece together the clues from the seance; the railway lines, the coal faced man, the fire, as she created an image she got a young man, about 17 years old, dressed in black with a red handkerchief tied round his neck and she also got the word "Stoker". Rosie wasn't familiar with what a 'Stoker' was so looked it up on Google to find that it has a connection with locomotives, they're also known as Firemen. Soon after our seance Rosie left her circle and eventually joined with another.
The Rescue
Caz, the lady that runs the develpoment circle, has had a lot of experience in doing rescues (4) so Rosie mentioned what had been going on to her. Caz said that they should try to make a connection with him from their circle. The only information that she had from Rosie was that things had been happening in our house and that we had done a circle and were quite sure that it was a man.
Caz took the group through a meditation and tried to establish a connection with the man in our house. She seemed to make a connection quite quickly but rather than the young man Rosie had seen she picked up on an older man probably in his fifties. Rosie was obviously disappointed as this did not correspond with what she had got. Caz said that the old man (5) watches us make cups of tea and said about the biscuits that we keep above the kettle (6) apparently the old man said that he would love to have a cup of tea and a biscuit. It was confirmed that it was this man that had opened the window and he was rather proud of the fact too.
Caz went on to describe the man as wearing a similar outfit to the young man Rosie had seen and said that she could see him in a small corrugated tin hut drinking tea. She got the feeling that he did not realize that he had passed over but he assured her that he did. She got the name Reuben and said that he is grounded and that they should help him go over to the 'other side'. To Rosie's dismay he said that he's not going anywhere! Caz inquired as to why not, Reuben replied that he would not go without George. Caz then got the image of George who fitted the description of the young railway man that Rosie had seen. Reuben felt responsible for George and would not go without him.
With that Caz directed them to the light and that was it , they were gone. Just like that, all over.
Caz took the group through a meditation and tried to establish a connection with the man in our house. She seemed to make a connection quite quickly but rather than the young man Rosie had seen she picked up on an older man probably in his fifties. Rosie was obviously disappointed as this did not correspond with what she had got. Caz said that the old man (5) watches us make cups of tea and said about the biscuits that we keep above the kettle (6) apparently the old man said that he would love to have a cup of tea and a biscuit. It was confirmed that it was this man that had opened the window and he was rather proud of the fact too.
Caz went on to describe the man as wearing a similar outfit to the young man Rosie had seen and said that she could see him in a small corrugated tin hut drinking tea. She got the feeling that he did not realize that he had passed over but he assured her that he did. She got the name Reuben and said that he is grounded and that they should help him go over to the 'other side'. To Rosie's dismay he said that he's not going anywhere! Caz inquired as to why not, Reuben replied that he would not go without George. Caz then got the image of George who fitted the description of the young railway man that Rosie had seen. Reuben felt responsible for George and would not go without him. With that Caz directed them to the light and that was it , they were gone. Just like that, all over.
Notes
(1) The attachment of Spirit, in this case a young girl, can occur if you do not correctly "close down" after conducting meditation or communicating with Spirit - Back to the story
(2) Although the glass spinning phenomena was extremely impressive I still remain in question as to whether it was communication with Spirit or whether it was what is known as the ideomotor effect which I have also mentioned in my article on pendulums - Back to the story.
(3) In this case the glass spinning didn't reveal a great deal and it could even be argued that it gave incorrect answers. It was suggested that we used a ouija board in future but we are reluctant to do so due to the "risks" associated with their use - Back to the story
(4) A "rescue" is the aiding of passing a Spirit from being grounded to this realm to the "other side" i.e Heaven or whatever actually exists (if anything) on the other side - Back to the story
(5) I appreciate that being in your fifties does not justify being called "old man" but for ease of writing this article it is how I refer to him - Back to the story
(6) I found it impressive that Caz should know that we keep biscuits in the cupboard above the kettle as she has never visited our home - Back to the story
(2) Although the glass spinning phenomena was extremely impressive I still remain in question as to whether it was communication with Spirit or whether it was what is known as the ideomotor effect which I have also mentioned in my article on pendulums - Back to the story.
(3) In this case the glass spinning didn't reveal a great deal and it could even be argued that it gave incorrect answers. It was suggested that we used a ouija board in future but we are reluctant to do so due to the "risks" associated with their use - Back to the story
(4) A "rescue" is the aiding of passing a Spirit from being grounded to this realm to the "other side" i.e Heaven or whatever actually exists (if anything) on the other side - Back to the story
(5) I appreciate that being in your fifties does not justify being called "old man" but for ease of writing this article it is how I refer to him - Back to the story
(6) I found it impressive that Caz should know that we keep biscuits in the cupboard above the kettle as she has never visited our home - Back to the story