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Ghost hunting

Mention the TV programme "Most Haunted" to most people and if they've heard of it they'll probably remember two of the cast in particular - Derek Acorah and Yvette Fielding.

Following these broadcasts many ghost-hunting groups were set up including one in Milton Keynes where I live. Now the thing about England, especially this neck of the woods, is that it's sometimes difficult to heave a brick without hitting something historic. This article is about an investigation at the Swan Inn at Great Horwood. The A421 route is Roman and just outside Buckingham itself at Thornborough there are two Roman burial mounds - so people have been living and dying in this area, and leaving traces behind, for nearly two thousand years.

Have a read through the report of the investigation. Ok, it's a local newspaper story but the standard of the work carried out is pretty common. One critic of these standards is Hayley Stevens, a paranormal researcher. Hayley appeared on the Fundamentally Flawed vodcast and while I respect her professional work I do have issues with how she interacts with people.

The thing is that Hayley, and many others, have been critiquing the low quality of the research being undertaken for years and people are still asking these groups to turn up and investigate ghostly sightings.

It's as though they won't be told.

Equally, and as I mentioned on FF#77 post show hangout, there are no barriers to setting up a group, there are no qualifications to pass and no statutory public liability cover required.

Furthermore, as I said in The Place, it seems to be a part of the human condition to want there to be "something" rather than it's people being uneducated or stupid.

Therefore, we're left in a state where there are people who believe in ghosts, other people who think ghost hunting or investigating ghost sightings is fairly straightforward (but whose investigations are actually very amateurish), and there are no restrictions to anyone calling them a ghost hunter or practising as such.

The cynic in me sometimes considers the prospect of setting up as a psychic, a medium, a healer or as a ghost hunter because it all looks like taking candy from a baby and people simply won't be told, and if anyone is going to take the candy then why shouldn't be me ?

Then that old nagging sensation called personal integrity comes a-knocking and I stop thinking about it.

It's really annoying sometimes.

Christmas (part 3) - Christmas in the UK

I was lucky enough to be asked on as a guest to “The Place” podcast by the New Covenant Group – you can watch it here.

It's two hours long but worth a watch.

I did try to explain some of the differences between the UK and USA expectations and experiences of the season, particularly Christmas Day but it was 2.30am and I'd like to clarify some of the points that I made.

Firstly – music. We do have a tradition of playing festive music in shops in December (and even late November), but eventhough there are pop songs that include religious themes they are not played very often.

The sort of songs that you might hear are

:: PPL's Top 20 most-played Christmas tracks of the decade:
1. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey
2. Last Christmas - Wham!
3. Fairytale Of New York - The Pogues feat. Kirsty MacColl
4. Merry Xmas Everybody - Slade
5. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday - Wizzard
6. Do They Know It's Christmas? - Band Aid
7. Driving Home For Christmas - Chris Rea
8. Stop The Cavalry - Jona Lewie
9. White Christmas - Bing Crosby
10. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! - Dean Martin
11. I Believe In Father Christmas - Greg Lake
12. Wonderful Christmas Time - Paul McCartney
13. Merry Christmas Everyone - Shakin' Stevens
14. Step Into Christmas - Elton John
15. The Power Of Love - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
16. Happy Xmas (War Is Over) - John And Yoko
17. Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
18. Winter Wonderland - Darlene Love
19. Stay Another Day - East 17
20. 2000 Miles - The Pretenders

source

and the two songs that I mentioned by Cliff Richard

“Mistletoe and Wine" by Cliff Richard

“Saviours Day” ditto

The most common time for an argument on Christmas Day is actually 10.13am - source. Indeed Christmas Day for alot of people is a very sad time and many do get depressed - source.

I would argue that "Mistletoe and Wine" is not very popular because it tells people how their Christmas should be and loads the event with a great deal of expectation that ends up unfulfilled and the Fairytale of New York is popular because it does the opposite and admits that the event often begins with a mix of hope and regret, and will include a raging row.

Next, I ought to explains Nativity Plays - and the way that although they appear to be explicitly religious they are actually far less so and instead, because of the need to be as inclusive as possible, the cast will include characters that are simply not mentioned in the Bible, often to the wry amusement of parents in the audience. Nonetheless, it is a popular event and a rite of passage for Primary School children.

Finally, the Pantomime is another Christmas tradition and is a musical comedy play based on children's stories such as Babes in the Wood, Cinderella, Snow White and Dick Whittington. The key features are audience participation ("He's behind you !", "Oh no he isn't", celebrities, awful jokes and garish costumes.

In summary, the UK Christmas experience is different to the USA and is not as overtly religious.

We are indeed two nations separated by a common festival.

Christmas (Part 2) – Co-opting the symbols

Once more unto the personal stuff. I live in England, this means that what I see everyday is the flora and fauna of Northern Europe. The stars that I see are oriented based on the latitude that I live in too. So, whether it's looking down, across or upwards whatever I see is based heavily on where I live, and whatever I see is going to be a heavy influence on what I believe.

As the seasons turn the flora change. Every Autumn the deciduous trees shed their leaves and the ground is covered with browns and golds as nature appears to go into shutdown. Nights become longer, days shorter, colder and wetter. In the midsts of these changes some flora do not change – ivy, holly, mistletoe continue to grow, the latter even on a tree that otherwise appears to be devoid of life. Whereas most plants fruit from Spring onwards the holly tree bears fruit in Winter, and eating very, very small amounts of those berries can induce hallucinations and heighten awareness (I bet you lot didn't know that), although taken too excess will result in poisoning and maybe death. Mistletoe is often thought of in conjunction with holly, and is asserted to be an antidote to poisoning as well as a cure for barreness in animals (which obviously explains the whole kissing thing excuse).

Tree worship more generally has a long history, again dating back to pre-Christian times in many countries and there are tales of Christian missionaries taking steps to eradicate it using force (or just an axe). During the leafing months the strongest and oldest tree is the Oak, but during Winter that mantle passes to the Pine or Fir tree as the tallest evergreen. In most cases the tree is not on it's own on a windy hill but in a sacred grove (if one did not naturally exist then there was nothing wrong with some judicious woodsmanship to create one).

The point that I'm trying to get to is what is the history of the symbols that we associate with the season ?

I think that a case can be made that people used whatever was around them and picked on whatever was odd amongst the noise of the mundane. People in England, generally speaking, do not worship grass, or brambles, or nettles, or dandelions, or privet for that matter (Monty Python and the Knights who say “Ni !” notwithstanding).

Christians, in seeking to obliterate any existing faith path were not above using force, or appropriating festivals, symbols and stories and overlaying them, sometimes with the most amazing use of spin, to turn those things into reinforcements of the Christian worldview.

If an oak was sacred to Thor then chop the thing down (thanks St Boniface). Otherwise co-opt whatever it was and invent an appropriate back story. As an aside I was in Paris in June and climbed the Eiffel Tower (well it was rude not to) and on the way down from the Second Level to the First I passed a family from the USA where the mother or auntie was speaking to a younger girl, about 14, who was clearly impressed by the structure and was being instructed

“This should remind you of your baptism ceremony, that was awesome too.”

I thought “It's a fucking marvel of human engineering not an excuse for brain-washing.”

Nonetheless it was being co-opted to reinforce the faith.

Anyway, my point is that many of the things that we associate with Christmas have actually got nothing to do with Christianity, they are the renamed refugees from earlier beliefs.