Who Ya Gonna Call? or My Experience as a Ghost Hunter

 

Chapter 15: Ghost Hunting Around the World (England)

 

     I have discovered that ghost hunting in America differs in several ways from other countries. Ghosts in England, for example, often speak a different language. If you come face to face with an English ghost and he says, “Oy, budge up, you cheeky bloke, since I popped my cogs, I got no time to fanny around,” you may just stand there with your mouth open because you have just seen a ghost AND because you have no idea what he just said.

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     Another difference is how ghosts were pursued in Europe before the Americanization of ghost hunting. Before the Yankee ghost hunter invasion, Europeans relied on mediums or sensitives to communicate with the Spirit world. Just like in the colonies, European television ghost hunters wander around in the dark with a microphone and night vision cameras that make everyone look like a daemon with glowing eyes, saying stupid stuff like “Oy, give us a sign of your presence.” Just once, I would like to see, unbeknownst to the ghost hunters, every special effect from every horror movie in the last hundred years thrown at them at one time when they say, “Give us a sign.” Of course, they would likely wind up like my babbling idiot Uncle Harvey. (Just so you know, my Uncle Harvey did NOT see a ghost; he has always been a babbling idiot.)

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     We will leave my family there and get back to ghost hunting. One of the most hoity-toity ghost-hunting organizations is The Society for Psychical Research (SPR). “It is one of the oldest and most respected organizations dedicated to studying paranormal phenomena scientifically and has a long history of scholarly research and publications,” according to ChatGTP. First, we must realize that I used the term hoity-toity not because it fit the context but because I have wanted to use it in an essay for several years and finally decided to ‘just go for it.’ The more common term would be prestigious, but it doesn’t sound nearly as fun. The SPR was founded in 1882 at a conference held in London. According to the SPR website, ‘THE SECOND half of the nineteenth century was a period of intense intellectual ferment,’ which forces me to visualize intellectual fermentation. All I can see is a vat full of brains. Maybe that is my brain fermenting? While SPR was being founded in London, in America, polygamy was made a felony by the Edmunds Act. I have no idea if there is a connection.

 

Warning: The following contains serious speculation and may not be suitable for all audiences.

     After reading several older books written by British authors, one thing that caught my interest was the focus on releasing earthbound spirits and allowing them to move on. This lasted well past the heyday (1840s to 1920s) of spiritualism in America. Instead of using electronic devices to record proof, this effort was a living spirit connecting to a deceased spirit to help the deceased spirit. It made me consider our communication today and how we give little peeks of our souls but avoid meaningful connections. It is not the medium so much as the method. We have gotten so used to short tweets, posts, or pins that we have forgotten how to connect spirit to spirit.