norfolk

Ghosts of the Roadside

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In many parts of the world people report encounters with the spirits and ghosts who roam motorways and lonely back-roads. These spirits seem to be looking for a way home or appear to be hitchhiking to the destination they were heading for when death cleaved them from this mortal coil. Other people claim to have seen ghostly cars that disappear as they reach a certain bend or area of a road. Some people even report phantom carriages being pulled by ghoulish horses and driven by spirits dressed in period clothing.

One such report is located in Wroxham in Norfolk, England. Here is the story of the witness:

“It was about 11.30pm and my friend and I were coming home from an evening out. We had not been drinking that night and my friend was driving. We had travelled down that road many times before and the traffic was light. As we drove down the road towards Wroxham we came through an area that had tall trees on each side. We were not driving very fast; about 30 -40 mph. It was then that we both saw two red tail lights up ahead of us on the side of the road. As we neared them we realised it was a van parked half on and half off the road. There was no traffic behind us, only a couple of cars coming towards us. They were at enough distance to pass the van safely.  My friend indicated and we pulled out to pass the van. The car coming towards us flashed its lights , which was silly because there was plenty of room, so we just dismissed it.

As we passed the van, we realised it was on the bank and the passenger side had hit a tree. The van doors were open and there was a man standing at the open drivers side door. The van was lit up inside and as we passed I noticed there was a big gouge in the hedge and a tree branch sticking out; its bark shaved off. One of the headlights of the van was broken too. There was no one else, there was nothing in the road or anything so we drove on.

We had not gone far, about 100- 150 yards, when we thought we had better go back and see if we could help. We pulled in and turned the car round and went back. When we arrived at the area we saw nothing. There was nothing there; no gouges in the bank, no van, no tree branch, nothing ! We drove on until we could turn round. We were both rather scared. We went back the way we had come, but at the spot where we saw the van crashed there was nothing. We drove home rather fast after that.

The next morning my friend went back with her husband and myself and there was nothing to be seen; no marks on the road or hedge, no broken branches, no pieces of broken headlight. Nothing. Later on when we discussed it thoroughly and concluded that the car that flashed its lights at us was doing so because, although my friend and I definitely saw the van, maybe he did not, which caused him to react as he thought we were overtaking nothing ! I have travelled that road over a hundred times since then, probably more, at all times of the night and day and I have never ever seen anything since.

My friend and I share the same birthday and the same year, so maybe that was why we both saw the same thing or maybe this caused us both to hallucinate the same thing at the same time…….but I dont think so.”

There are many other such tales from all across the world and it seems such places have often been the site for traumatic unexpected deaths, such as by car crash.  Perhaps one day these lost spirits will find their way to their destinations, or perhaps they will forever dwell along the lonely roads where they met their death.

Ouija Boards

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ouija

Ouija boards as we know them came into existence as a game in the mid-1800’s, when spiritualism and channeling were fashionable. Previous to this the first historical mention of something similar to a Ouija board is found in China at around 1100 B.C.[The word “Ouija” is a mix of the French and German words for “yes.” Adolphus Theodore Wagner first patented Ouija boards, or “talking boards,” in England in1854. In the patent, Wagner called his invention a “psychograph” and it was supposed to read people’s minds. By 1861, Frenchman, Allan Kardac, was describing the Ouija board as a tool with which to open communications with the spirit world.

Modern Ouija boards were then developed by inventor William Fuld, who sold his patent to Parker Brothers in 1966.  The Ouija boards sold by Parker Brothers consist of a rectangular game board that is covered with a woodcut-style alphabet, the words yes, no, and good-bye, and the numbers 0-9. Also included is a heart-shaped plastic planchette. The planchette is the ‘pointer’ that glides over the board under the direction of supernatural forces and form comments and questions by pointing them out.

Although marketted as a toy, there are people who believe they can be harmful. Some people believe that “evil demons” pretend to be cooperative ghosts in order to trick players into becoming spiritually possessed. Some Ouija board users claim to have had bad experiences related to their by being haunted by “demons,” seeing apparitions of spirits or hearing voices after using them. Some paranormal researchers claim that the majority of the worst cases of demon  harassment and possession are caused by the use of Ouija boards.

How does a Ouija Board work? Believers claim that humans are a channel through which the spirit can alter the world. Sceptics believe that it is all down to small and subconscious movements of the hand. This is known as the ‘ideomotor effect’. Some would also argue that mediums communicate on a deep near unconscious level so it is also likely that a spirit could direct the users of a Ouija Board in a similar manner.

Although I have never used a Ouija Board myself, my mother dabbled with them as a teenager. I would probably try using one once, but having been strongly warned off them by my mother, I would not want to make a habit of it. Here is an experience my mother once had with a Ouija Board:

“Many years ago when I was about 13, I used to go out with a lad from a local town. One evening we were in his bedroom with four other friends, and we decided to play with the Ouija Board. One of the other lads was against it and refused to take part, so he sat on a chair by the wardrobe and as we asked the spirits questions he took the mickey, saying we were pushing the glass etc.
We contacted a spirit whose name was Jack and he had been a sailor. The lad by the wardobe laughed and took the mickey again, saying he knew what sailors were like and making bad comments. My boyfriend and I were amazed by the contact and asked lots of questions of this Jack, but it became difficult because of my boyfriend’s mate taking the mickey. We began to lose track of what we had said and started to ask silly things. I think the spirit became annoyed because a moment later there was a loud bang and the lad by the wardrobe had blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Well, we got out of the room and ran downstairs like hell. Once we had calmed down in the kitchen the lad told us what had happened: the bang we had heard was his head going back and hitting the wardrobe. He said that something or someone had hit him in the face, hence the blood and the cut lip. Well it was not any of us that did it! To this day I will never forget it and the look on the lad’s face. We never played with the Ouija Board again in that house and my boyfriend burnt all the letters and the board. Very strange indeed.”

Ouija – By Sylvia Plath
It is a chilly god, a god of shades,
Rises to the glass from his black fathoms.
At the window, those unborn, those undone
Assemble with the frail paleness of moths,
An envious phosphorescence in their wings.
Vermillions, bronzes, colors of the sun
In the coal fire will not wholly console them.
Imagine their deep hunger, deep as the dark
For the blood-heat that would ruddlr or reclaim.
The glass mouth sucks blooh-heat from my forefinger.
The old god dribbles, in return, his words.

The old god, too, write aureate poetry
In tarnished modes, maundering among the wastes,
Fair chronicler of every foul declension.
Age, and ages of prose, have uncoiled
His talking whirlwind, abated his excessive temper
When words, like locusts, drummed the darkening air
And left the cobs to rattle, bitten clean.
Skies once wearing a blue, divine hauteur
Ravel above us, mistily descend,
Thickening with motes, to a marriage with the mire.

He hymns the rotten queen with saffron hair
Who has saltier aphrodisiacs
Than virgins’ tears. That bawdy queen of death,
Her wormy couriers aer at his bones.
Still he hymns juice of her, hot nectarine.
I see him, horny-skinned and tough, construe
What flinty pebbles and ploughable upturns
As ponderable tokens of her love.
He, godly, doddering, spells
No succinct Gabriel from the letters here
But floridly, his amorous nostalgias.

Spirit Animals

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I was recently on an on-line forum where a member was questioning the existence of animal ghosts. This got me to thinking about the subject of animal spirits.

I agree with the possibility that the spirits of animals may linger on. We humans are also animals after all, so why should there not be the possibility of animal ghosts too?

My childhood pet was a cat called Sooty. She lived a until a very good age, dying when I was around 15 years old. When she was alive she had a preference for sitting on the back of the sofa near my head. Kind of like a fluffy feline head-warmer. After she passed away I often got a sense that she was sitting in her regular position on the back of the chair, keeping me company. And then I remembered that she was in fact dead! I had this feeling on numerous occasions. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling though. It was quite a peaceful and comforting feeling to have her there.

Dingle and IMy other childhood pet was a cat called Dingle. He was half Persian and half regular moggy. He had a dish face and extra long claws, which used to pick along the carpet noisely as he walked. When Dingle was alive he could be heard picking his way up the stairs and he would often yowl outside my parent’s room or sometimes my room when he wanted a midnight snack or to go outside.  Dingle also lived to a grand old age and died when I was around 18 years old. After Dingle passed away, he could often be heard doing this same routine at night. I certainly heard him picking his way up the stairs with his long claws many times in the dead of night, and both my mother and father heard the same, plus on one occasion his yowl. Even my father who is a total sceptic remarked that it often seemed like Dingle and Sooty were still with us.

Our family have moved away from there now, but I still wonder if Dingle and Sooty are keeping a new family company in the house they loved so much while alive.

The Care Home Ghost, Wroxham, Norfolk, UK

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I have been interested in the paranormal since I was a young teenager, but have not had any experiences myself until recently. However, I began to become more open to the possibility of ghosts after seeing my mother the morning after she had an experience. She came back from work the day after a sleepover and looked a wreck. She also wouldn’t talk about her experience for several weeks. Here is her story:

It was just an ordinary day at work, I worked as an assistant manager in a small care home for the elderly. I used to start work at 2 pm, sleep in the building in a small flat at night and resume work the next day at 7.30 am.There were 22 elderly residents in the care home and at night two night staff who stayed awake.

One night several years ago I went to bed as usual, in the small flat which had been converted from the old stable block. The building was over 100 years old. It had been a private  house, and then a hotel, but had been a care home for at least 50 years.

The bedroom had two single beds, a dressing table and a wardrobe. The window on the right looked over the driveway to the building which was surrounded by trees.

I lay in bed reading a magazine. It was about 1 am. All was quiet. There was no wind and the door to the bedroom was locked, I became aware of a movement in the room and looking over the top of my magazine I saw a grey misty sort of thing in the middle of the room. Well my heart stopped, I am sure! I lowered my mag and watched as the misty grey stuff took on a shape. I was actually paralysed with fear. I am sure my mouth was hanging open, and I felt as if i could not move.

My brain was trying to rationalise the shape. I never smoked in tht room so it was not smoke. ‘Maybe it was car headlights in the drive way, or a reflection from the wardrobe mirror’, I told myself, continually watching as the grey mist took on the shape of a person. I was still staring at it trying to make out what it was when it seemed to take a step forward, or move forward anyway.

Well suddenly nature took over and it as flight or fright and I was out of that bed and fumbling for the key in the lock. As soon as the door opened I was down the stairs two at a time, without looking back and I ran through the downstairs door,  ran along the corridor and into ther kitchen where I found a very surprised nightstaff !

The rest of the night Islept in another room and only went back with the nightstaff to get my clothes in the morning.  There was no sign of anything unusual in the room.

Wroxham

Later discussing the incident with my collegues, the other assistant said that she had often heard banging and felt odd in that room, and one of the staff said there was presumed to be the ghost of a young Italian stablehand in the flat, as he had hung himself in the stable sometime doing the war. Apparently he was a prisoner of war and did not want to go home, but whether this was true or not I do not know.

Many strange things had been seen and felt in the old building. I had other experiences there: the sound of children crying and things being rearranged while I slept. One of the staff had often felt someone brush past her in the hall and one of the staff would never go up to the flat for any money; she said it was creepy. I took the advice of the local vicar and left a bible by the bed and a glass of water and I was never bothered again, just the occasional odd noise thereafter.