GHOSTS
In folklore, mythology, and modern media such as literary fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an beingless presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance. The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences that haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, ghost ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted.
BORLEY RECTORY
Borley Rectory was a Victorian mansion that gained fame as "the most haunted house in England" after being described as such by Harry Price. Built in 1862 to house the rector of the parish of Borley and his family, it was badly damaged by fire in 1939 and demolished in 1944. The large Gothic-style rectory in the village of Borley had been alleged to be haunted ever since it was built. These reports multiplied suddenly in 1929, after the Daily Mirror published an account of a visit by paranormal researcher Harry Price, who wrote two books supporting claims of paranormal activity. The uncritical acceptance of Price's reports prompted a formal study by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), which rejected most of the sightings as either imagined or fabricated and cast doubt on Price's credibility. His claims are now generally discredited by ghost historians. Neither the SPR's report nor the more recent biography of Price has quelled public interest in the stories, and new books and television documentaries continue to satisfy public fascination with the rectory.
Borley Rectory was constructed near Borley Church by the Reverend Henry Dawson Ellis Bull in 1862; he moved in a year after being named rector of the parish. The house replaced an earlier rectory on the site that had been destroyed by fire in 1841. It was eventually enlarged by the addition of a wing to house Bull's family of fourteen children. The nearby church, the nave of which may date from the 12th century, serves a scattered rural community of three hamlets that make up the parish. There are several substantial farmhouses and the fragmentary remains of Borley Hall, once the seat of the Waldegrave family. Ghost hunters quote the legend of a Benedictine monastery supposedly built in this area in about 1362, according to which a monk from the monastery conducted a relationship with a nun from a nearby convent. After their affair was discovered, the monk was executed and the nun bricked up alive in the convent walls. It was confirmed in 1938 that this legend had no historical basis and seemed to have been fabricated by the rector's children to romanticise their Gothic-style red-brick rectory. The first paranormal events reportedly occurred in about 1863, since a few locals later remembered having heard unexplained footsteps within the house at about that time. On 28 July 1900, four daughters of the rector, Henry Dawson Ellis Bull, saw what they thought was the ghost of a nun at twilight, about 40 yards (37 m) from the house; they tried to talk to it, but it disappeared as they got closer.[9] The local organist, Ernest Ambrose later said that the family at the rectory were "very convinced that they had seen an apparition on several occasions". Various people claimed to have witnessed a variety of puzzling incidents, such as a phantom coach driven by two headless horsemen, during the next four decades. Bull died in 1892 and his son, the Reverend Henry ("Harry") Foyster Bull, took over the living. On 9 June 1928, Harry Bull died and the rectory again became vacant. In the following year, on 2 October, the Reverend Guy Eric Smith and his wife moved into the house. Soon after moving in, Smith's wife, while cleaning out a cupboard, came across a brown paper package containing the skull of a young woman. Shortly after, the family reported a variety of incidents including the sounds of servant bells ringing despite their being disconnected, lights appearing in windows and unexplained footsteps. In addition, Smith's wife believed she saw a horse-drawn carriage at night. The Smiths contacted the Daily Mirror asking to be put in touch with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). On 10 June 1929 the newspaper sent a reporter, who promptly wrote the first in a series of articles detailing the mysteries of Borley. The paper also arranged for Harry Price, a paranormal researcher, to make his first visit to the house. He arrived on 12 June and immediately phenomena of a new kind appeared, such as the throwing of stones, a vase and other objects. "Spirit messages" were tapped out from the frame of a mirror. As soon as Price left, these ceased. Smith's wife later maintained that she already suspected Price, an expert conjurer, of falsifying the phenomena. The Smiths left Borley on 14 July 1929 and the parish had some difficulty in finding a replacement. The following year the Reverend Lionel Algernon Foyster (1878–1945), a first cousin of the Bulls, and his wife Marianne (née Marianne Emily Rebecca Shaw) (1899–1992) moved into the rectory with their adopted daughter Adelaide, on 16 October 1930. Lionel Foyster wrote an account of various strange incidents that occurred between the time the Foysters moved in and October 1935, which was sent to Harry Price. These included bell-ringing, windows shattering, throwing of stones and bottles, wall-writing and the locking of their daughter in a room with no key. Marianne Foyster reported to her husband a whole range of poltergeist phenomena that included her being thrown from her bed. On one occasion, Adelaide was attacked by "something horrible". Foyster tried twice to conduct an exorcism, but his efforts were fruitless; in the middle of the first exorcism, he was struck in the shoulder by a fist-size stone. Because of the publicity in the Daily Mirror, these incidents attracted the attention of several psychic researchers, who after investigation were unanimous in suspecting that they were caused, consciously or unconsciously, by Marianne Foyster. She later said that she felt that some of the incidents were caused by her husband in concert with one of the psychic researchers, but other events appeared to her to be genuine paranormal phenomena. She later admitted that she was having a sexual relationship with the lodger, Frank Pearless, and that she used paranormal explanations to cover up her liaisons. The Foysters left Borley in October 1935 as a result of Lionel Foyster's ill health.
THE CASE OF LINDA SIMPSON
In the late 80s, in a house in Runcorn New Town, England, Linda Simpson was preparing another evening in front of the TV. Lisa began to read, her 3 year old daughter, and waited for the arrival of her husband. Suddenly he heard his daughter's voice, he went into the room and saw little Lisa sitting that he was talking to air. The mysterious conversation went on for a few minutes. It was a normal conversation between an adult and a child, only that there was no adult could not be seen nor felt. Linda Lisa called several times to make it stop, but it took several minutes before the little, in a trance, return itself. The sat down on the sofa, and again fell a concern when the child began to look toward the stairs chuckling: << He is here again >> he said. After a few weeks he repeated the episode and Linda if she did describe: "he" was an old man with white hair who recommended it to be good with mom. Lisa explained that the man affectionately called her "chuck" (a term equivalent to "my darling") and this detail struck Linda, who began to understand: as a child she also grandfather always called "chuck". The next day Linda carefully leafed through the family album and showed him the little pictures; "He is" excitedly said, "is what comes to see me." The mysterious friend, then, was the great-grandfather of the child. Lisa had never known.
THE CASE OF MUNCASTER
In 1994 , the Englishman Sir Patrick Gordon - Duff Pennington , owner of Muncaster Castle in Cumbria , signaled a series of appearances around similar to other reported many years ago. From an in-depth study on the history of the building it turned out that the Muncaster Castle was the scene of strange phenomena since its first construction in 1325. The ASSAP (Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena) assigned to each researcher various parts of ' building , with the delivery to record everything that would occur in the night . These lived some really mysterious and frightening experiences ...