GHOSTLY VISITANTS

Evening Star, Issue 20317, 28 October 1929, Page 1

GHOSTLY VISITANTS

NEED FOR SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY The subject of ghosts was discussed by Mr J. W. Herries in the course of a wireless nroadcast talk to all Scottish stations. In the course of his lecture Mr Herrids said : A general serious interest in ghosts in this country may be traced to the publication many years ago of W. T. Stead’s ‘ Real Ghost Stories,’ which appeared first as a Christmas publication.' These stories of ghosts differed from the conventional Christmas stories of ghosts in respect that they purported to be actual records of incidents observed, and that they were authenticated by reputable witnesses who had been more or less direct observers of the manifestations. The proceedings of the Society for Psychic _ Research, containing records of inquiries into ghostly occurrences, fill many volumes. These and other records’ furnish a great body of evidence which cannot be ignored. One of the first impressions a perusal of this evidence will give is that the conventional ghost of fiction is a very different thing from the real article. There is a great variety of what are generally known as ghosts. There are ■ghosts who are occasionally seen but who have no power apparently of speaking. A much commoner type is invisible but can make noises. During war time there was a remarkable Poltergeist manifestation in the neighbourhood of London, where a resident, a man of considerable means, had an underground chamber constructed in the garden of his house for use during air raids. Stones began to fly about in the excavation, the workmen were occasionally struck, and eventually the work had to he stopped. On one occasion the proprietor himself, when the workmen were absent, went down to examine the excavation. He found the temporary wooden door held against him, and on returning by the narrow passage way was surprised to see two heavy beams thrown right out, with great force, from the excavated chamber below. “ INGENIOUS EXPLANATIONS.” Ingenious explanations are made of these happenings. In this instance one of the newspapers recording the events explained the matter as being due to the liberation of marsh gas. If this is the real explanation, then wo have to credit marsh gas with previously unsuspected qualities, including largo dynamic powers, and even a sense of humour.

Scotland is particularly rich in the family ghost type—the drummer, for example, who' is heard in some historic mansion house just before a death is due in the family. This kind of supernatural warning is common to all countries. A member of the Polish Diplomatic Service whom I used to meet- in Edinburgh told mo that in one of the old families of his the warning takes the form of a wine glass or tumbler suddenly shattering into atoms. While some of the old phantom stories of the traditional kind are largely to bo discounted, I. may mention that an Edinburgh gentleman occupying an official position has told mo that his brother, also a professional man of standing, had on one occasion a peculiar confirmation of an old tradition about a ghostly coach and horses hoard on a certain roadway in the vicinity of a mansion house. On a moonlight night he heard what seemed to be a coach approaching. It came right along the avenue, with all the noise and bustle and the sound of disturbed air that a real coach might bo expected to make, but nothing whatever was visible. His dog became excited, and ran barking as if accompanying the equipage. AN EDINBURGH GHOST. While natural explanations may he found for a great many mysterious occurrences, there nevertheless remains a mass of material which cannot be so explained. In a house occupied by a friend in Edinburgh for some forty years, a white lady (a fairly common typo of visible ghost) has been seen from time to time by every member of the family except the head of the household. I questioned members of this family individually. Their testimony_ on the subject is positive. 1 was informed on inquiring on the point that. the mysterious visitant, who was seen in different parts of the house, seemed to bo unaware of the existence of the other occupants, or, at least, paid no attention to them. There was a curious confirmation of this experience. Another friend who moved into the house next door informed me that two servant maids in succession had left suddenly because of the appearance in their room of a white lady. Neither girl knew the other. There was an interval between the departure of ono and flic arrival of the other. This friend did not know the people next door, and until I told him had never heard about their white lady, who apparently did not confine her excursions to the one house. The curious thing about this ghost question is that while nearly everyone professes himself or herself sceptical, when they become a little more confidential they are able to toll you of abnormal happenings of this kind which have occurred either to themselves or to acquaintances from whom they have heard first-hand stories. It would greatly add to the elucidation of a very baffling and obscure subject, which iu recent years lias begun, ns I said at the commencement, to receive attention in a scientific spirit, if carefully observed cases of abnormality were conscientiously recorded and contributed to a common fund for examination.