Mary King’s Ghost Fest

As the Mary King’s Ghost Fest comes to town, Kirstin Innes spends some quality time in the Blair Street vaults, one of the most haunted locations in Britain

I didn’t see dead people. I should make that very clear. No dead people were actually seen in the process of writing this article. Whether or not they were there, my friends, I’ll leave up to your judgement.

Underneath Edinburgh’s South Bridge, opposite the City Café and next door to Cabaret Voltaire, there’s a series of vaults which were used as a subterranean village in the 17th century. It was a high crime, high poverty area - a lot of murders. Over the past few decades, the vaults have attracted swarms of parapsychologists and psychics, and there’s a regular tour which capitalises on the vaults’ reputation as one of the most haunted places in the country. Nobody dresses up like a wacky Elizabethan jester and no mad monks jump out at you. They don’t need to: the tour guides lead you down there and around the cold, candlelit rooms armed with little more than a book full of purportedly true accounts from sceptics and believers alike, and somehow manage to create one of the most frightening experiences of your life.

The trick, I told myself, is just to think everything through rationally, and ignore that strange, cold, creeping feeling tightening around your waist. That plan was working very well until our guide, Robert, mentioned the Watcher, a particularly malevolent spirit who tends to follow the tour parties round: ‘He’s often seen right behind that doorway there, and has possessed people on the tours.’ He paused, then went into great graphic detail about twisted faces and women being flung across the rooms. Just a story. Ignore that coldness spreading across your back. . . ‘And - oh Kirstin, I’m so sorry, you’re on the hot - or rather, the cold spot. The most common point for possession is right there, in the doorway.’ I moved. Nobody laughed. Later on, when he gave us electro-magnetic field measuring devices and told us to go and explore, we hung back, huddled together, even the bright sceptics who’d asked scientific questions at the start of the tour.

In the third room we visited, the panic set in. The atmosphere changed, suddenly: the temperature dropped, the woman beside me started shaking, and I got a very tangible feeling that something just wasn’t right. Robert noticed it too, ushering us out and seeming to curtail the tour. I’m glad he did, because I was about to run for it.

Back in the sunshine, it was very easy to rationalise the whole experience away. Mass hysteria, clever insinuation, manipulation of the atmosphere. I just haven’t quite convinced myself of it yet.

The Mary King’s Ghost Fest has been finding novel ways to scare the bejesus out of people since 2005, and this year’s programme, bigger than ever before, encompasses paranormal experiments with Most Haunted’s Dr Ciaran O’Keeffe and screenings of cult horror films. You can also, should you want to, conduct an overnight vigil in the Blair Street vaults. Whatever. You and the Watcher can paint each other’s toenails and tell ghost stories. I won’t be joining you.

The Mary King’s Ghost Fest runs from Fri 11-Sun 20 May. See www.edinburghghostfest.co.uk for full event listings. Tours and vigils in the Blair Street vaults are run by Mercat Tours: www.mercattours.com.

More: Days out, Ghosts, Mary King's Close, Supernatural

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Occult Week TV

Channel 4, starts Tue 6 Mar, 10pm

SPOOKY DOCUMENTARIES

It’s long been believed that with the death of mass popular religion in Britain the paranormal plays a much larger part in people’s belief systems. But if the double-bill opener to this short season is anything to go by, debunking the scary and the sinister is an industry in itself. Or maybe in this post-Blair Witch world, we just think that there are as many hoaxers as ghouls all around us.

First on is Interview with a Poltergeist, which catches up with the Hodgson family from Enfield who were embroiled in a paranormal nightmare in 1977 when the spirit of a dead cockney became trapped in 11-year-old Janet’s body. Their testimony and the eye witness reports from police and press is brutally convincing but there are sceptics who reckon this was just a girl having a laugh, growling out an OAP’s voice for weeks on end. Setting aside the fact that her vocal chords would have been damaged beyond repair after an hour of such impersonation, you can tell by the shattered look in the 41-year-old Janet’s eyes that fun didn’t play much part in her experience. There’s not much fun to report in the story within Sex, Magick and Murder but the death of Pagan Peter Solheim which was plotted by his spurned lover is simply made to look like the work of malign satanic forces. Though, when you see what they did to his toes you’ll be glad of a sickbag.

More: TV, Documentary, Interview with a Poltergeist, Magick and Murder, Occult Week, Reviews, Sex, Supernatural

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Angus Dunn

SUPERNATURAL TALE

The image of the sleepy insular community rocked by some sinister supernatural force has been a cultural staple, from Daphne Du Maurier’s The Birds through to the surreal chills of Twin Peaks. In his debut novel, erstwhile joiner Angus Dunn provides a startling, Highland twist on this familiar sub-genre. The fictional fishing village of Cromness provides the backdrop to shape-shifting locals, houses which double as the portal to some parallel universe and the beach where village eccentric Jimmy Bervie looks for sandy patterns to divine the future.

Dunn’s novel began life as a series of instalments on the internet, but the episodic nature of his tale neither inhibits its swift pacing, nor detracts from the fact that this is a bold, confident debut, packed to the gunnels with memorable characters and wry humour. The other great star of the novel, however, is the setting, Dunn bringing the Black Isle to vivid, dramatic life.

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Quantum Preponderance

I live within a singularity.

An expansion of never ending.

My consciousness emanate omnipotent decree.

Subjugating totalitarian that which random may achieve.

For there exist levels of advanced human experience which are lonely in expression representing an exchange between mere sentience and that of conscious ascent.

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Paranormal News Central Copyright Thieves

The people behind the site Paranormal News Central are in the habit of stealing copyrighted material from other sources which they then add their own name to while giving no credit to its original creators.

Contacting them gets you nowhere with the exception of mild harassment and name calling which is standard behavior for groups of this type which now saturate the Internet with their bogus claims, stolen material, and frequent ad displays filling their site.

Presently through YOUTUBE Paranormal Central has illegally copied and altered my video which I had produced for a couple in Florida who are allegedly plagued by small aliens entering their home. And ours is not the only video which they have illegally copied and added their name and website address.

The practices of groups like Paranormal News Central who feel they are above the law represent just a few of the problems which today only serve towards further discrediting the honest efforts and hard work of the paranormal community.

Those of us who have done the research and have produced evidence which in turn is shared publicly are those who deserve credit for their contributions.

Those within the paranormal community who steal and thus profit from the hard work and efforts of others should be exposed publicly so that everyone may become aware of their unethical and illegal behaviors so that they may be avoided and blacklisted from the overall community.

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The Return Of Horror Cinema

I remember back when as a child long before cable or even Satellite television when the local channels would run special programs dedicated to sci-fi and horror movies. Television programs such as Frightening Flickers with Gregory The Grave Walker stumbling his way through Mount Hope Cemetery.

Now back then which was long before personal computers and video games were invented, a child relied on books and his imagination along with listening to the radio for entertainment. But when horror television came along you can bet that many children were glued to the tube watching human or mutant monsters wreck havoc on mankind.

I mean sure, some horror movies may have been somewhat corny even in its day, but because of its unconventional nature as compared to the norm would leave you riveted to your seat until the ending credits rolled and mom was reminding you after five times that dinner was getting cold.

Such memories.

And since I’m such a hardcore paranormal advocate and old sci-fi monster movie buff that I recently completed the video program Graveyard Cinema with your host Mr. Ghoul.

Graveyard Cinema first movie will be the brain numbing classic The Legend of Boggy Creek. A movie so slow and gradual in its depiction of some hairy swamp monster terrorizing the folks of Fouke, Arkansas, that even Thomas Biscardi could not have done more to liven it up.

So if you know anyone within the CH15 PCTV area ask them to record this regions first return of classic horror t.v and enjoy the ride back to a simpler time when horror movies with little or no commercial interruptions ruled.

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Haunted Irish Pub

Supernatural Paranormal » Blog Archive » Haunted Irish Pub Supernatural Paranormal Covering Beyond The Peripheral

Haunted Irish Pub Posted on 2nd April 2010 in Anomaly, Ghost Hunting, Ghosts, Mediumship, Paranormal, Stigmatized Property

A couple days ago we found ourselves visiting a lake side Irish Pub here in Monroe County which had long held the reputation of containing more than just a wide selection of fine liquors.

Several years ago while the establishment had been under different ownership were we invited to investigate but had never followed through. Fortunately the new owners of the site were kind enough to permit us partial access of the establishment for the exclusive purpose of attempting capture of any anomalous events.

We arrived at about 11:30 PM and after sitting down with our drinks had begun my tour where from anyone else’s perspective I was only taking pictures and videos of things they could not see.

Later after arriving home  and having downloaded my images did I then discover just how haunted this one particular drinking establishment proved to be. Though not surprising given its long history, nearness to a body of water, and location of severe accidents through the years.

My first clue was when within 15 minutes of my arrival did I have one of several spirits brush by me in letting me know of their awareness regarding our actual purpose for being there.

I never once sensed any hostility but rather an insatiable curiosity  bordering on impending loneliness just to be noticed.

comments: Closed tags: 11:30 PM, anomalous events, body of water, haunted, Haunted Irish Pub, investigate, Monroe County, spirits « The Little People Mommy! There’s A Monster In My Bedroom! » Comments are closed.

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