Ghostly encounters…

WHEN five successful British writers revealed their belief in ghosts they based their stories on personal experience. Did they open themselves to ridicule?  Apparently not.

Studies show that 48 per cent of Americans believe in ghosts.  Given that Britain is more ghost-friendly I would expect the British percentage of believers to be higher.

I never had a problem coming to terms with apparitions or the supernatural. This may be due to their being self-evident. As a child, mother would say, “it is the living, not the dead who harm you.”

An Ordinary Seaman on the MV Grecian, I recall a night time passage approaching Gibraltar. 

Entering the tool room far below the waterline two engineers chanced upon an Arab sitting cross-legged on an oil drum. Presuming the youngster to be a stowaway the pair approached. It was then they realised that the figure was an apparition. Horrified, both men fled to the upper deck. I can testify to their extreme shock.

Only when the ship reached London did the captain reveal that the spectre was evident during earlier voyages. It was that of a youngster who, on stowing away in Tripoli, was fatally sealed in a hold.  

A ship’s lookout will ring the fo’c’sle bell once if a ship is seen to starboard, twice if to port and three times if ahead.  Through the stormy night the bell constantly rang accurately as we approached the English Channel.  

Only at dawn was it realised the lookout was nowhere near the bell but was on the upper bridge.  Sent to tie the maverick bell the lookout returned to say that it had been disabled the previous night.  Who then had been tolling the bell’s warnings?

Before retiring to Spain I lived in an old manse.Think of the sitcom, To the Manor Born and you have it.

The apparition there made no secret of its presence. We accepted each other and I christened her Casperette.  Rarely did I mention her to visitors but many guests were startled by her unexpected presence.

One night, using the guest room, a lady colleague stayed overnight. Just as we settled down we were shocked by an atrocious banging on both our bedroom doors.  Running to the landing we found it to be empty.  

Neither of us made a big deal of it. However, I am convinced that Casperette was consumed by jealousy at the presence of my female guest.

On several occasions I stayed at Widdecombe Manor in Chagford, Devon. R. D Blackmore’s classic, Lorna Doone, was based on the manor’s 17^th Century romantic tragedy. My experiences whilst a guest would make your hair stand on end as they did mine. 

I have never questioned life on a spiritual plane. Some are attuned to it, some are not.  As the great scientist Nikola Tesla revealed: “My brain is only a receiver. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know it exists.”