понеделник, 26 ноември 2012 г.
Ash Manor Ghost
A curious haunting that occurred
in England in the 1930s and was solved by psychical
researcher NANDOR FODOR. The case demonstrated how
underlying psychological factors of the living can create,
or at least contribute to, an apparent ghostly manifestation.
It also provided one explanation as to why some individuals are haunted at a particular site and others are
not. The case was one of Fodor’s most famous, and helped
to establish his reputation and his theories of the psychological
underpinnings of some hauntings. His detailed
account of the case is included in his book The Haunted
Mind (1959).
Ash Manor House, located in Sussex, was built in the
13th century during the time of Edward the Confessor.
Over the centuries, much of it was destroyed and rebuilt,
but a portion of the structure still survived when Mr.
and Mrs. Keel (a pseudonym assigned them by Fodor)
purchased the property and moved in on June 24, 1934.
They were unaware that the house had a reputation for
being “shady,” or haunted, although two previous owners
had lived there for 13 and seven years respectively without
disturbance.
Shortly after the Keels moved in with their 16-year-old
daughter and their servants, they began to hear strange
stamping noises in the attic, as though someone were
walking on fl oorboards despite the fact that the attic had
none. Then, at approximately 3:35 A.M. on November 18,
1934, Mr. Keel was awakened from a deep sleep by three
heavy bangs upon his bedroom door. He got up and went
down the hall to his wife’s bedroom, and she confi rmed
that she also had heard the noises. They were at a loss to
explain them.
The next night at the same time, Mr. Keel was awakened
by two violent bangs upon his bedroom door. The
third night at the same time, he was awakened by one
bang. The Keels suspected something supernatural was
afoot.
Mr. Keel went out of town and returned on November
25. Nothing happened in the house during his
absence. On the night of his return, he had a feeling of
ill boding. His room felt unnaturally cold. He tried to
stay awake, but he fell asleep around 3:00 A.M. Shortly
thereafter, he was awakened by a single violent bang on
the door.
He sat up, and standing in the doorway was, as he
described later, “a little oldish man, dressed in a green
smock, very muddy breeches and gaiters, a slouch hat
on his head and a handkerchief around his neck.” At fi rst
Keel took the man for a servant; he questioned him but got
no response. He jumped up and grabbed the man by the
shoulder and was astonished to see his hand go straight
through him. Mr. Keel evidently fainted at that point.
He then found himself at his wife’s bedroom, babbling
incoherently. Mrs. Keel raced out for brandy, and came
upon the little man, still standing in the doorway of Mr.
Keel’s bedroom. At fi rst she saw only his feet and leggings,
then the whole fi gure. She observed a red kerchief
around his neck and a pudding basin hat upon his head.
His face was red, his eyes were “malevolent and horrid,”
and his mouth was open and dribbling. He stared at her
stupidly. She thought he was a vagrant who had gotten in
the house. She attempted to strike him, and her fi st went
through him. Mrs. Keel ran.
The green man, as the Keels called him, made more
appearances, usually to Mr. Keel. The family also heard
more knocks and footsteps, which they attributed to the
ghost. The man frequently appeared in front of the chimney
in Mr. Keel’s room, which led Mrs. Keel to suspect
that something was hidden inside the chimney wall. She
also found that she had the power to make the ghost
vanish by touching it, but that Mr. Keel could not do the
same. Once, the specter raised his head, and Mrs. Keel
could see that his neck had been cut all the way around.
She concluded that the ghost was a murder victim, and
speculated that it was his skeleton that was hidden in the
chimney.
The manifestations were distressing to the Keels; their
servants were so frightened that they quit their jobs. The
Keels attempted to get help in “laying,” or exorcising, the
ghost by advertising in the newspaper. Two individuals
claimed to be able to do the job but did not succeed, and
a priest brought in to perform a formal EXORCISM only
exacer bated the disturbances. Another two lay exorcists
claimed the house had been built upon a Druid circle, and
that the priest had riled up an evil force from it. In Jan uary
1936, an amateur photographer took a photograph of the
landing at midnight, which showed a cocoon like shape.
However, the photograph was incon clu sive as proof of a
supernatural presence.
In July 1936, Fodor became involved in the case at the
invitation of a writer who was including the Ash Manor
haunting in a book about ghosts. Fodor arrived to fi nd the
Keels visibly strained and fearful of publicity that would
harm their social reputations. He stayed at the house and
took photographs, and slept in the haunted room. But no
ghost manifested to him either visually or on fi lm. Nor
did he hear any phantom footsteps or bangs.
At that time, MEDIUM EILEEN J. GARRETT was living
in En gland, and Fodor invited her to join him at Ash
Manor. She arrived on July 25 with an American friend,
Dr. Elmer Lindsay, and her daughter, also named Eileen.
Garrett received the clairvoyant impression of a man who
had been imprisoned and had suffered a great deal. He
had a secret. He was a half-brother to either Edward IV
or Edward V, and had started a rebellion. He was tortured
because of some papers that had to do with the succession
of one of the Edwards, and was left crippled as a
result. The chimney may have been the hiding place of
these papers.
That evening, the investigators entered the haunted
room. Garrett went into a trance, and her CONTROL,
Uvani, spoke. Uvani gave this explanation for the haunting:
ghosts manifest when an atmosphere of unhappiness
enables a spirit to draw energy and revive its own sufferings.
“Haven’t you discovered that these things only
happen to you when you are in a bad emotional state,
physically or mentally disturbed?” Uvani said. “Don’t you
realize that you yourself vivify this memory?” The control
went on to say that in the early 15th century, a jail
had existed near the house, where many unhappy souls had lost their lives and lingered about. Anyone living in
the house who was “nervously depleted” would give out
energy which would attract a ghost, who would use the
energy to build itself up “like a picture on the stage.” (See
the apparitions theories of G. N. M. TYRRELL.)
Uvani announced that he would permit the ghost to
possess Garrett. Her features changed; the Keels said her
face looked like that of the ghost. In speaking through
Garrett, the ghost identifi ed himself in an apparent medieval
English accent as “Charles Edward.” He claimed to
have been robbed of his lands by the “Earl of Huntingdon”
and betrayed by a former friend, “Buckingham.” He
had been separated from his wife and son and left to rot
in jail. His son, he said, was fi ghting for an “ungrateful
king,” but when pressed to identify the king he gave an
evasive reply. He asked the witnesses to help him wreak
vengeance upon his enemies.
Fodor and the others informed the ghost that he was
dead, and pleaded with him to give up his desire for
vengeance, which would enable him to join the spirits of
his wife and son. The ghost reluctantly agreed to do so.
He departed, unwillingly, and Garrett returned to normal
consciousness.
The haunting was far from over, however. Twentyfour
hours later, Fodor was informed by Mr. Keel that
the ghost had reappeared in his doorway, only this time
he was trying to speak. Mr. Keel seemed smug that the
exorcism had failed. The ghost also manifested to another
medium who knew nothing of the events; the medium’s
control advised Dr. Lindsay to conduct another seance at
Ash Manor for purifi cation.
Fodor then conducted another session with Garrett,
but without the Keels. The ghost once again pleaded for
help in getting vengeance. Uvani announced that the
Keels had used “this poor, unhappy creature” in order
to embarrass each other, and that they did not genuinely
want the ghost to leave. The control also said that if
the unhappiness in the house persisted, the house would
become truly haunted and unhappy for future tenants.
Fodor at last felt he was closing in on the solution to
the situation. Mrs. Keel confessed to him that her husband
was homosexual, and that a great deal of tension
existed between them. Fodor felt that the ghost provided
distraction that prevented the tension from breaking out
into the open.
Mr. Keel acknowledged that what Uvani had said was
true. But now he felt the ghost was possessing him. Fodor
suggested it might be identifi cation with the ghost due to
the shock of the exorcism. Whatever the cause, after Mr.
Keel made the admission that he was hanging on to the
ghost, the phantom departed and was not seen or heard
again.
A scholarly investigation of the statements made by
“Charles Edward,” as well as handwriting he did through
Garrett, was inconclusive. The ghost’s apparent medieval
English diction was deemed not authentic. Nor could any
information be found to establish his historical identity.
In analyzing the case, Fodor considered the argument
that the ghost was purely an invention of Mr. Keel’s subconscious
mind, which Garrett, as a psychic, had simply
“borrowed” in the seances. However, some of the haunting
phenomena at Ash Manor seemed truly paranormal,
especially the fact that the ghost had been seen and heard
independently by several persons, and had also been
sensed by the family dog. Fodor concluded, “It may be
that those who put themselves in an unguarded psychological
position, in a place fi lled with historical memories
and traditions, do, on rare occasions, come into contact
with a force or an intelligence other than their own.”
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