ARE DOLPHINS PSYCHIC?

I saw this in the Daily Mail and just had to post it here

 

Are dolphins psychic? Their complex social intelligence suggests the animals may share a 'collective consciousness'

• Dolphin intelligence is a feature in Susan Casey's book Voices in the Ocean
• The mammals behave in a way that suggests a 'collective consciousness'
• Their limbic system, involved with controlling emotions, is larger than ours 
• Dolphins have been known to 'sense' when swimmers have become stranded and gone to their rescue, even if they are miles away  

Dolphins have long been considered to be intelligent, but scientists are only now starting to unravel the true complexity of their brains and behaviour.

In many ways they behave like humans - they form social groups and cliques, they have previously been taught to recognise 'alphabets' of symbols and many have even attempted to befriend us.

Now, a book discusses how this high level of intelligence could stem from the mammals having what's known as a collective consciousness, with the author claiming they 'may know something that we don't'. 

The paralimbic area of the dolphin's brain, which regulates emotions as it does in humans, has evolved an extra lobe. A new book discusses how this may give the animals an unprecedented level of social intelligence, and even a 'collective consciousness'. Fungie the Dingle dolphin that lives in an Irish bay is pictured

The points are raised in Susan Casey's book 'Voices in the Ocean'.

Ms Casey wrote the book after she encountered a pod of spinner dolphins. 

She admitted that this first experience made her want to explore the 'strange, enduring, occasionally tragic, and often wonderful relationship between humans and dolphins' and set off to learn more about the creatures. 

Dolphins and the 'collective mind' 

Over the past 50 million years the brains of dolphins have evolved and expanded dramatically in size. 

At the same time, their bodies have shrunk, their teeth have become smaller and they have developed high-frequency hearing.  

The limbic system in a dolphin's brain is responsible for the emotions in the same way as it is in human brains.

While most vertebrates evolved this region early and kept it pretty much intact, the system in the brains of dolphins developed further. 

Dolphins form cliques, can recognise themselves in a mirror, empathise, fear and love - just like humans. And these similarities have been used to explain why dolphins are so keen to befriend humans in Susan Casey's book Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins

The idea of a dolphin collective soul was proposed in the 1980s by paleoneurologist Harry Jerison. However, 'collective consciousness' in other animals has been discussed for a century. Blue tits (pictured) in Europe (for example) have exhibited telepathic behaviours with birds in other parts of the world, for example

Odours, for example, are indistinguishable underwater so the hippocampus of dolphins - a region linked to their olfactory sense - diminished, Ms Casey explained.

'Meanwhile, their paralimbic area grew huge, so densely jammed with neurons that it blurped out an extra lobe,' she said.

COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS AND TELEPATHY IN ANIMALS

The unique evolution of the dolphin brain suggests the animals are doing something very sophisticated or complex while they're processing emotions.

Their brains may even have adapted for a type of unprecedented connectivity.

The idea of a dolphin collective soul was proposed in the 1980s by paleoneurologist Harry Jerison, referred to 'the communal self.'

However, 'collective consciousness' in other animals has been discussed for a century.

The idea was first presented by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1893 and is often referred to as a group having a 'shared mind' or 'hive mind'.

Yet in the 1970s, scientists began to suggest this collective consciousness could be developed and spread through species non-explicitly, through telepathic means.

Monkeys in Japan, for example, adopted and developed certain identical behaviours without ever coming into contact with one another.

Blue tits in Europe exhibited similar so-called telepathic behaviours, suggesting they were sharing ideas. 

Ms Casey's book explained: 'In fact, dolphins are so tightly bound to their pods that they may be operating with a degree of interconnectedness far deeper than our own.'

'There's a jubilee of tissue packed into this area, an exuberance of grey matter that scientists believe relates to all things feeling - and no other mammal has anything quite like it.'

During an interview with neuroscientist Lori Marino, Ms Casey asked whether the animals' nature was the reason why dolphins have such large brains. 

Ms Marino said this unique evolution suggests the animals are 'doing something very sophisticated or complex while they're processing emotions' and their brains may have adapted for a type of connectivity unprecedented in the animals kingdom.

Ms Marino calls this a 'collective soul'. 

'When you look at their brain you can definitely see how this could be an animal that takes sociality to another level,' Ms Marino told Ms Casey. 

She used the example that dolphins and whales strand en masse when only one or two individuals are sick and when they're herded together they huddle in a group rather than jumping nets.

'There is some sort of cohesiveness in them that I don't think we get quite yet, but it accounts for a lot of the behaviour that seems strange to us,' she continued. 

'I think a lot of it comes down to emotional attachment.

'And I think there is a very strong sense in them that if something happens to the group, it happens to you.'

The possibility of a dolphin collective soul was first proposed in the 1980s by paleoneurologist Harry Jerison. He referred to this as as 'the communal self.' 

However, 'collective consciousness' in other animals has been discussed for more than a century. 

The idea was first presented by French sociologist Émile Durkheim in 1893, but his definition related more to a shared understanding of certain morals and social norms based on people either imitating others, explicitly passing on these behaviours to one another, or agreeing certain ideals in order to feel accepted.

Neuroscientist Lori Marino explained in the book that the dolphin's unique evolution suggests they are 'doing something very sophisticated or complex while they're processing emotions' and their brains may have adapted for a type of connectivity unprecedented in the animals kingdom

Tales of dolphins befriending humans (stock image) are said to date back as far as AD 77 when Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recounted a story about a dolphin who formed a bond with a boy who fed him bread. Aristotle even wrote offhandedly about the dolphins' 'passionate attachment to boys' 

It is often referred to as a group having a 'shared mind' or 'hive mind'.

Yet in the 1970s, scientists began to suggest that this collective consciousness could be developed and spread through species non-explicitly, through telepathic or 'supernatural' means.

Monkeys in Japan, for example, were shown to have adopted and developed certain identical behaviours without ever coming into contact with one another.

FUNGIE THE DINGLE DOLPHIN 

Dolphins form cliques, can recognise themselves in a mirror, empathise, fear and love - just like humans. 

And these similarities have been used to explain why dolphins are so keen to befriend humans.  

Tales of dolphins befriending humans are said to date back as far as AD 77 when Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recounted a story about a dolphin who formed a bond with a boy who fed him bread.

Aristotle even wrote offhandedly about the dolphins' 'passionate attachment to boys'.

In Ms Casey's book, she refers to one dolphin in particular called Fungie, the Dingle dolphin. 

According to local legend, the bottlenose dolphin has been swimming in Dingle bay, Ireland since October 1983. 

Despite the dangers the bay present Fungie, including heavy boat traffic and fishing trawlers, sightings are reported almost every day. 

He is always seen alone, however, suggesting he is not part of a pod like other dolphins.

Dolphins have also even been known to bring fish and other 'gifts' to humans which feed them, particularly at the Tangalooma Island Resort in Australia. 

Ms Casey explained this behaviour may be a sign that dolphins behave towards humans the same way they do towards one another.

Blue tits in Europe exhibited similar so-called telepathic behaviours, suggesting they were sharing ideas. 

Ms Marino continued: 'In fact, dolphins are so tightly bound to their pods that they may be operating with a degree of interconnectedness far deeper than our own.'

Befriending humans: The social needs of dolphins 

The dolphin's behaviour, on the other hand, may not be a sign of a collective mind, or telepathy, but instead a much higher state of social intelligence compared to other animals, namely humans. 

'In any group of dolphins you’ll find cliques and posses, duos and trios and quartets, mothers and babies and spinster aunts, frisky bands of horny teenage males, wily hunters, burly bouncers, sage elders - and their associations are anything but random,' Ms Casey said in her book.

'They’re also highly social chatterboxes who recognise themselves in the mirror, giggle, feel despondent, stroke each other, adorn themselves, use tools, introduce themselves, rescue one another from dangerous situations, form alliances, throw tantrums, gossip, scheme, empathise, seduce, grieve, comfort, anticipate, fear, and love - just like us.'

These similarities may explain why dolphins are so keen to befriend humans.  

Tales of dolphins befriending humans are said to date back as far as AD 77 when Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder recounted a story about a dolphin who formed a bond with a boy who fed him bread.

Aristotle even wrote offhandedly about the dolphins' 'passionate attachment to boys'.

As Ms Casey described in her book: 'When you consider how risky it is for dolphins to spend time in close proximity to people, it is all the more intriguing that so many human-dolphin stories have similar themes: dolphin seeks out man, dolphin wants to play with man, dolphin assists man, dolphin rescues man.' 

Ms Casey explained dolphins may behave towards humans the same way they do towards one another. 'In other words, dolphins do not always differentiate between us and them' she said. Dolphins have even been known to bring fish and other 'gifts' to humans which feed them

She refers to one dolphin in particular called Fungie, the Dingle dolphin. 

According to local legend, the bottlenose dolphin has been swimming in Dingle bay, Ireland since October 1983. 

Despite the dangers of the bay, including heavy boat traffic and fishing trawlers, people claim to have spotted Fungie almost every day.

JOHN LILLY: THE MAN WHO MADE DOLPHINS THE 'SMARTEST ANIMALS'

The idea that dolphins have superior intelligence was made popular in the 1950s by neuroscientist John Lilly.

He attached electrodes to the brains of living dolphins to stimulate neurons and observed that a dolphin that was about to be brutally killed made loud noises, which he interpreted as attempts to communicate with its tormenters.

After further experiments Dr Lilly became convinced dolphins had a human-like faculty of speech and attempted to establish contact with the marine mammals. 

Dr Lilly became somewhat obsessed with the intelligent dolphin theory, administering LSD to himself and dolphins in the hopes of stimulating conversation and moving to the American West Coast, where he wrote books in which he combined New Age ideology with his dolphin research. 

Dr Lilly said the animals were 'more intelligent than any man or woman' and attributed them philosophy, ethics and an 'ancient vocal history'.

He is always seen alone, however, suggesting he is not part of a pod like other dolphins.

Ms Casey explained this behaviour may be a sign that dolphins behave towards humans the same way they do towards one another.

'In other words, dolphins do not always differentiate between us and them. 

'Maybe that was why Fungie had made his home among the residents of Dingle,' she said. 

'To him, perhaps, they were just a slightly peculiar-looking pod.'

Dolphins have even been known to bring fish and other 'gifts' to humans which feed them, particularly at the Tangalooma Island Resort in Australia.  

Dolphins: Lifesavers of the sea 

Whether it's a social need for the dolphins to connect with a species it sees similarities in, or a strong desire to interact with any species, the creatures have a reputation for being keen lifesavers.

Ms Casey's book features a number of anecdotes of dolphins breaking away from boats to encircle and rescue the bodies of people who had attempted suicide or become stranded at sea, sometimes miles away from where the dolphins were.  

One example, quoted from the book 'Beautiful Minds' by biologist Maddalena Bearzi, recalls a story in which dolphins supposedly beckoned a group of divers out to sea and away from the coastline of Thailand on the day the tsunami hit in 2004.

The divers were unaware of the dangers on the shore and claim the dolphins effectively saved their lives by keeping them out at sea. 

If they do have a collective consciousness, with or without telepathic abilities, the animals may have been able to 'sense' that someone was in danger. 

And if theories about the animals not being able to differentiate between humans and themselves are true, they may have responded to a lone human in the same way they would a lone dolphin that had been separated from its pod.  

Ms Casey's book features anecdotes of dolphins breaking away from boats to encircle and rescue the bodies of people who had attempted suicide or become stranded at sea, sometimes miles away from where they were. If they do have a 'collective mind' the animals may have been able to 'sense' someone was in danger

Are dolphins really that smart? 

Not all scientists are in agreement with Ms Casey, however.  

A study from neuroethologist Paul Manger of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa claimed that behavioural studies involving dolphins are flawed and therefore not very informative.

'We put them on a pedestal for no reason and projected a lot of our desires and wishes on them,' said Professor Manger. 'The idea of the exceptionally intelligent dolphin is a myth.'

Whereas goldfish placed in a bowl try to jump out to freedom, dolphins rarely try to escape when they are caught in nets.

'DOLPHINS ARE NO SMARTER THAN GOLDFISH', CLAIMS EXPERT

A recent study from neuroethologist Paul Manger of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa claimed that behavioural studies involving dolphins are flawed and therefore not very informative. 

'We put them on a pedestal for no reason and projected a lot of our desires and wishes on them,' said Professor Manger. 'The idea of the exceptionally intelligent dolphin is a myth.'

Whereas goldfish placed in a bowl try to jump out to freedom, dolphins rarely try to escape when they are caught in nets.

While zoologists have observed that dolphins can distinguish between the concepts 'many' and 'few', he suggested the same ability has also been demonstrated in yellow mealworms. 

While zoologists have observed that dolphins can distinguish between the concepts 'many' and 'few', he suggested the same ability has also been demonstrated in yellow mealworms.

He continued that evidence which shows dolphins have learnt sophisticated 'tool use' is 'flimsy' because it is based on the fact bottlenose dolphins on Australia's west coast have learnt to hold sponges in their snouts to help them find food on the ocean floor.

'Exactly what the dolphins do with the sponges remains unknown,' he said.

While researchers have been able to teach bottlenosed dolphins to recognise an 'alphabet' of as many as 40 symbols, Professor Manger pointed out that African grey parrots and California sealions have also managed the same feat. 

And while much has been made of the dolphin's ability to identify itself with a 'signature whistle', experts now say this is not a complex language, and say it is no more unusual than the tail-wagging dances of bees or 'signature' accoustic signals made by other marine animals. 

At the time of the report, Karsten Brensing, a marine biologist with the organisation Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), said: 'To put it bluntly, most of that is b*******.

'You can use similar arguments to prove that people aren't intelligent.' 

'One of the great marine scientists, Ken Norris, described dolphins as "the most mysterious of fauna on the planet" in the 1960s,' Ms Casey told MailOnline. 

'Since then we’ve learned much about these animals: we’ve examined their formidable brains, we’ve charted their amazing evolution, we’ve tested their cognition in every way we can think of, we’ve observed them in the wild. 

'We know that dolphins are self-aware, that they have distinct and stable personalities, that they call themselves by name. So that makes our relationship more informed, but at the same time we’ve learned all these impressive facts about dolphins, we’re making their lives increasingly hard. 

Dolphins contend with many threats [and] my hope is we can take all our knowledge about them and distill it into wisdom.'

Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey is published by Oneworld

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ANOTHER REASON WHY YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY WITH OUIJA BOARDS

Story below is from the DAILY MAIL. As I have mentioned many times never play with ouija boards as they attract the dark side and often masquerade as loved ones who have passed over. Unless you are an experienced medium stay well away from this side as you can unleash forces of which you have no control nor understanding

 

The day a poltergeist attacked me: Skeptical about the supernatural? So was the Mail's MICHAEL HELLICAR - until he saw events so chilling they still haunt him to this day

• Journalist Hellicar was sent to report on the 'Enfield Poltergeist' in 1977 
• Presence first made itself known after two girls played with a ouija board
• Over the summer, some 30 people witnessed the ghostly goings-on 
• Story to be told in series starring Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen

The first sign that something was amiss came when the children’s Lego bricks were hurled at me by an unseen hand. The next came a few minutes later, when a heavy kitchen cabinet crashed to the floor at my feet. Yet I had been alone in the room — or so I thought.

Scariest of all, though, was the very palpable atmosphere of fear. A malevolent spirit seemed to have taken up residence, moving the furniture, emptying drawers, sprinkling water, lighting matches and causing general mayhem, forcing the terrified Hodgson family who lived there to huddle together in dread. 

It seemed to centre its attention on 11-year-old Janet, who was levitated above her bed, sent into violent trances and made to speak in a rasping male voice. Many of the 1,500 psychic occurrences there were not only independently witnessed but are verified by investigators’ photographs and audio tape.

Scroll down for video 

The Enfield Poltergeist terrified the Hodgson family - including Janet, 11, pictured here flying through the air, and her sister Margaret, right - and at least 30 witnesses during the summer of 1977

No wonder the Hodgsons’ unremarkable council semi in Green Street, Enfield, North London, became notorious as the most haunted house in Britain. The story is being told in a three-part drama which starts on TV next month. Timothy Spall and Matthew Macfadyen play psychic researchers called in to investigate the haunting, and Janet is portrayed by 13-year-old Eleanor Worthington-Cox, who won an Olivier Award for best actress in the title role of Matilda in London’s West End.

It is creepy stuff, with moody music, special effects, dramatic acting, emotionally-charged dialogue and skilful editing; a mix that will ensure viewers go to bed afterwards — if they dare — with goosebumps.

However, for all the technical trickery and artistic licence, it is nowhere near as horrifying, nor as mystifying, as the real events on which the story is based.

I know, because as a newspaper reporter sent to write about the hauntings, I witnessed many of them first-hand as they unfolded 38 years ago in the summer of 1977. So did some 30 other people including police officers, neighbours, other journalists and BBC staff and even passers-by.

The Enfield Poltergeist, as the ghostly visitor became known, first made its presence felt soon after Janet and her older sister Margaret, 12, played with a ouija board.

‘The girls were changing into their nightclothes and complained something was making their beds wobble,’ their mother Peggy (played on screen by Rosie Cavaliero) explained to me after the haunting began. ‘I told them to stop messing about.

‘The next night, I heard screaming and banging coming from their room after they had gone to bed. When I went in, a heavy chest of drawers was sliding by itself across the floor, trying to block the doorway. The girls were terrified.

‘I pushed the chest back against the wall, but it slid towards me again. I tried, but I couldn’t stop it. I wondered if my two younger boys [Johnny, 10, and Billy, seven] were playing pranks, because they also slept upstairs, but they weren’t anywhere near the room.’

Over the next few weeks more furniture moved of its own accord; plates, cutlery, toys and books would go flying, and one night things were so bad Peggy called the police, who arrived to see a sitting-room chair lift off the carpet and move towards them.

One of the officers, WPC Carolyn Heeps, later reported: ‘It came to rest after about 4ft. I checked it for hidden wires or any other means by which it could have moved, but there was nothing to explain it.’

The malevolent presence seemed to particularly focus on Janet, pictured here in the bathroom

The council house which was apparently haunted by one of its former residents, who died in a chair

In desperation, the family called in the scientifically respected Society for Psychical Research, who sent two members, Guy Lyon Playfair, the Cambridge-educated author of several books about psychic phenomena, and businessman Maurice Grosse to investigate.

Playfair, portrayed in TV’s dramatised version by Matthew Macfadyen, said: ‘I went in a few weeks after the trouble started. I had an open mind, and looked for a logical explanation. I soon found there wasn’t one.’

His first experience of the Enfield Poltergeist was when a marble appeared from nowhere and dropped like a stone at his feet on the lino floor. Over the next 14 months he would visit the house on almost 120 occasions — sometimes the ghost would be quiet, but on many others it would be running rampant.

On my first visit, it was as if the Lego throwing was an initiation — a newspaper photographer, Graham Morris, had already had a block hurled at him. Even more puzzling, the blocks were hot. And when I checked the wall fixings of the cabinet that had fallen to the floor, the screws were still in place. Janet was dismissive when I told her what happened. ‘Oh, that’s not unusual,’ she said. ‘What’s really annoying is when it pulls out all the drawers and leaves everything on the floor.’

The episode is now being made into a television series for Sky Living, with Timothy Spall playing paranormal investigator Maurice Grosse

On subsequent visits I experienced cold draughts, graffiti, water puddles appearing from nowhere, bad smells, and chairs and tables moving of their own accord. Other witnesses reported physical assaults, matches bursting into flame and fleeting glimpses of different apparitions, including an old woman and a man.

Spookiest of all, an imprint of a body would be found on one of the beds, as if someone had been sleeping there. Peggy would straighten the sheets, only to find the shape back again later.

On another night when the family were together in the sitting room with me, there was a slow rapping coming from Janet and Margaret’s bedroom, directly above. We dashed upstairs, but no one was there.

A few nights later, Guy Playfair heard ‘a tremendous vibrating noise’ coming from the same empty room. ‘It was as if someone was drilling a great big hole,’ he reported. He went in to find the fireplace torn out from the wall, where it had been cemented in. ‘It was one of those old Victorian cast iron fires that must have weighed 60lb. The children couldn’t have ripped it out of the wall, but in any case they weren’t there.’

On another occasion, with all the children in bed, the other SPR investigator, Maurice Grosse (portrayed by Timothy Spall in the TV drama), was downstairs compiling notes when he heard Janet screaming. He ran to see her being dragged out of her room by an unseen force. She was then hauled down the stairs and dumped at his feet.

Like so many of the ghostly incidents, it was recorded on audio tape, and some were caught by a remote camera set up by Graham Morris.

Not that the Enfield Poltergeist made it easy — Morris would set up his expensive equipment with flash guns powered by freshly charged batteries, only to find them quickly draining. Tape-recording was often difficult, too — a BBC team’s state-of-the-art machine, which worked perfectly outside the house, would sometimes inexplicably jam once inside.

Pictures show Janet being levitated off the bed, curtains twisting themselves into a spiral, pillows being thrown, sheets being pulled off the sleeping children. When I asked Janet if she realised she had been whirled across the room in her sleep, she said she had somehow drifted through the wall into the house next door.

‘I can tell you exactly what I saw,’ she said and described where various objects were situated. I checked with the neighbours, Vic and Peggy Nottingham, who confirmed everything in their bedroom was placed just as Janet had told me.

The Enfield Poltergeist, as the ghostly visitor became known, first made its presence felt soon after Janet and her older sister Margaret, 12, played with a ouija board

Another time, two passers-by, a lollipop lady and a baker, looked up at the house and through a first-floor window saw Janet spinning around and bumping against the glass. A cushion also seemed to materialise on the roof.

But everything took a serious turn when Janet began to lapse into violent trances, swearing and hurling insults in disembodied voices quite unlike her own.

‘This thing never seemed to know who it was,’ Playfair said. ‘It would claim to be all different people, speaking in many different voices, and much of what it said through her was nonsense. It was as if Janet was being taken over.’

But one night an eerie message — captured on tape — came out of Janet’s mouth loud and clear, and what it said sent a chill through all of us. ‘My name is Bill,’ rasped a voice. ‘Just before I died, I went blind and then I had a haemorrhage and I fell asleep and died in the chair in the corner downstairs.’

None of this meant anything to the Hodgson family or their neighbours. But when the tape was played on the radio, a man got in touch to say he recognised his father’s voice. ‘His name was Bill Wilkins,’ he said, confirming his father had lived at the Hodgsons’ house many years earlier — before Janet was born — and he had died exactly as he had described.

The Hodgson house had a very strange atmosphere whether Janet was there or not. I always felt as if we were being watched by a malignant spirit. 

Playfair, 80, wrote a book about the Enfield Poltergeist — This House Is Haunted — which became a bestseller. The new drama is based on it and sticks to the basic story, but inevitably ramps up tension — Playfair says a few psychic scenes didn’t happen but were written in by the TV people.

Maurice Grosse, who died in 2006, had only become interested in the paranormal the previous year, after his journalist daughter — also called Janet — had been killed in a motor cycle accident and the family began to experience psychic happenings.

He was convinced she was trying to send messages from beyond the grave to him and his wife Betty (played in the TV series by Truly, Madly, Deeply star Juliet Stevenson).

Grosse and Playfair came to believe it wasn’t so much Peggy Hodgson’s house that was haunted, but Janet herself, and to a much lesser extent, her older sister Margaret. Indeed, one night we had all gone out to visit Janet’s uncle, a few doors away, and the ghostly tricks continued there. ‘This is person-centred,’ Playfair told me. ‘It doesn’t stay in the house, but follows Janet around.’

For myself, I wasn’t so sure. The Hodgson house had a very strange atmosphere whether Janet was there or not. I always felt as if we were being watched by a malignant spirit.

It was never comfortable for me — especially after I discovered the corner where Bill Wilkins died was where I invariably sat! I was worried, too, that the poltergeist might attach itself to me, just as it apparently had to Janet.

I had a young family; what if it left the Hodgsons alone and took up residence in my house? So even after all these years I understood Spall’s concern when he was asked to play Grosse.

‘It frightened the life out of me’, he admits. ‘I’m scared of anything like that in case it leads to me being haunted. I didn’t want to wake up at night with the doors opening and shutting.’

He asked Playfair if he was ever worried ‘there would be demons sitting on your bed or something.’ Playfair replied: ‘Oh no, I made a nice cup of tea and went to sleep.’

Inevitably, there were accusations that the Hodgson family were staging an elaborate hoax, and Playfair and Grosse were dismissed as gullible.

Janet admitted in a TV interview in 1980 that she and her siblings had tried to fake some happenings — ‘about two per cent’ — because they felt under pressure when so many visitors came to the house expecting to see something ghostly on demand.

Those who witnessed the goings-on are convinced the only explanation is paranormal

First-hand account: Furniture moved of its own accord; plates, cutlery, toys and books would go flying

‘We caught them each time because we were watching for trickery,’ says Playfair. ‘They would try to bend spoons, like Uri Geller. They tried to hide my tape recorder so I would think the poltergeist had moved it. But they didn’t realise it was switched on, so I heard every word of their plot!

‘But too many other things happened that could not be faked. Usually there were too many witnesses. What about all the things that happened in empty rooms, when the kids were somewhere else?

‘What about all the things I saw and heard? And the police officers? Children couldn’t have fooled so many people, all of whom wanted to find a rational, earthly explanation for what was happening.’

To all those who say the poltergeist must have been a hoax I say this: I was there and you weren’t. I investigated everything at first hand and you didn’t. I know what I saw and heard.

Investigator Guy Lyon Playfair 

As for the cacophony of voices coming out of Janet’s mouth, the psychic investigators devised their own test. With Janet and her mother’s agreement, the girl’s mouth was filled with water before being taped up to prevent her speaking. Yet the voices still came out. And afterwards, all the water was still in her mouth.

Maurice Grosse offered £1,000 (£6,500 today) to anyone who could replicate the voices by ventriloquism or any other form of trickery, but no one took up his challenge.

Finally, Playfair invited two psychic medium friends to see what they could make of the hauntings.

‘They came to the house and almost immediately made contact with the poltergeist,’ says Playfair. ‘It took them 15 minutes of talking to him calmly, and the effect was remarkable. The nastiness died down at once and Janet went to sleep for 14 hours — the first uninterrupted sleep she’d had in nearly two years. After that, there was very little trouble.’

Life at the house in Green Street returned to normal for the Hodgsons. Peggy, who had refused to move, even when things got so bad that the family would huddle together in fear, remained there until she died from breast cancer in 2003.

Janet left home at 16, married and moved to Essex. She prefers to stay out of the limelight, saying she doesn’t want to rake up those traumatic events. ‘I’m still in touch with her,’ says Playfair, ‘but I respect that she doesn’t want any more fuss.’

Inevitably, the TV drama will bring out the disbelievers. ‘To all those who say the poltergeist must have been a hoax I say this,’ says Playfair.

‘I was there and you weren’t. I investigated everything at first hand and you didn’t. I know what I saw and heard.’

So do I — and that’s why I slept with the lights on for weeks afterwards.

•  The Enfield Haunting begins on Sky Living on Sunday May 3 at 9pm.

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Astrid Brown (Author)

Astrid Brown (Author)

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STORIES FROM THE AFTERLIFE

Article below is from the Daily Mail and similar to another article I pasted on here. Believe what you want for I won't push my beliefs onto anyone, but I will say if you are reading my webpage you must have some interest in the paranormal. When I do readings for clients I often have no contact with them what so ever. Someone will ask me for an email reading, a total stranger, and when I am given validation of the reading, explain to me how could I possibly know, I can't read body language, read their mind, I can't see them, haven't seen a photograph, can't hear their voice or have ever heard their voice for that matter. So how can I know about their relatives in spirit and about their lives? Until someone can come up with a rational explanation for this you have no right to criticise the people below and their experiences. I give survival evidence on a daily basis, I have seen spirit all my life from being a tiny child, just as my daughters and grandchildren also do. Are these small children telling complicated and fanciful lies? I don't think so, especially when a two year old's predictions come true.

 

Loved ones spoke to us from beyond the grave: Readers' spine-tingling stories will test the skepticism of anyone who doesn't believe in the spirit world 

• Novelist Jane Merrill Forrest didn't believe in seances and ghost stories
• However, a mysterious encounter with her dead brother changed her mind
• She told her story in the Daily Mail and we asked you to share yours
• Readers who were spoken to from beyond the grave responded in droves

Scoff at seances and ghost stories? Novelist Jane Merrill Forrest did, until - as she related in last Saturday's Daily Mail - a mysterious encounter with her dead brother changed her mind. We asked you to share your own experiences, and you responded in droves...

Yvonne Moreman's husband died after a long and happy marriage

After a long and happy marriage, my darling husband died. Five months later, I was sitting in my kitchen with the door to the hall open when the temperature in the bungalow suddenly dropped (it was a lovely, sunny day).

When I looked up, I could see an outline similar in size to my husband.

I spoke to him and told him how I loved him and missed him. After a short time, he put out his arms towards me... and then he disappeared, and the temperature in my home returned to normal.

I have never dismissed the thought of an afterlife, nor have I really believed in it, but I do know now that my beloved is waiting for me, so I have no fear of dying.

Yvonne Moreman

My husband Noel and I live in Northern Ireland. Noel used to be an engineer and is the most pragmatic, realistic man you could ever meet.

On July 31 last year, he came in from his shift after midnight and put his car keys on the bedside cabinet. At 3am, the keys flew across the room, waking us both, and I accused him of swiping them with his hand. He just said it wasn’t him, and that was that.

We were flying to London later that day. As I was driving to the airport, he kept telling me to watch my speed, mind that car, and was generally being irritating. Then he said: ‘We are going to be in a car crash today.’ At the airport, I gloated that I’d managed to get us there in one piece.

Catherine was involved in a car crash after her husband was visited by dead relatives

We landed at Heathrow at 5pm and got picked up by a friend. As I got into the middle of the back seat, I couldn’t find the belt buckle so I wasn’t going to bother. Noel insisted I dig it out and gave me ‘The Glare’.

Five minutes later, I shouted: ‘That guy hasn’t seen us!’ as another vehicle sped across the lanes.

The impact was fairly substantial. I dislocated my neck and pulled the cruciate ligament in my left knee. Noel fractured his sternum and three ribs. The Fire Brigade said that if I hadn’t been wearing my seatbelt, I would have been out through the windscreen.

Later on, in A&E, I asked Noel how he had known what would happen.

He told me that his recently deceased cousin Shane had thrown the keys, and that he was there with their grandmother. They had told him not to go to London as he would be in terrible pain. When I asked why he had still gone, Noel said that if he hadn’t, then I wouldn’t have worn a seatbelt and would probably have been killed.

If anyone else but Noel had come out with this story, then I would have laughed at it.

Catherine

Susan Jones' uncle was a Manchester United fan

My Uncle Don was a lovely, caring man, and, like most of the family, a Manchester United supporter.

When he died it was the week before Remembrance Day, and I visited the chapel of rest to say a last goodbye. Uncle Don was dressed in a black suit and tie with a white shirt, and it struck me how drab it all looked.

So I took the poppy I was wearing and pinned it to Uncle Don’s lapel. That looked much better. Then I kissed him on the cheek and left.

Fast forward two years and I was sitting watching Manchester United playing in a Champions League match on TV. There was only me in the room, but my son was upstairs watching the game.

The door to the hall was open and out of the corner of my eye I thought I saw my son standing there. I turned to speak but there was no one there — just a glow of light on the door.

This happened about four times over the next 20 minutes or so, until eventually I got up and shouted up to my son, asking him if he’d been down. He said he hadn’t. I returned to the lounge and continued to watch the game, still aware of the glow on the door.

There was a huge vase of silk poppies — my favourite flower — in the room. Suddenly, one of the poppy heads fell off the flowers and onto the floor. I was quite shocked as I was the only person in the room and I had not moved.

I rang my sister’s friend, who is a psychic medium, and she asked me whose anniversary was around that time. I said: ‘Uncle Don’s.’

Then she asked what I had given him in the chapel of rest. I was stunned, as it had been a poppy!

I ended the conversation and said: ‘Come in, Uncle Don, and watch the game.’ A few minutes later, when I turned round, the glow had gone from the door.

Susan Jones

Many years ago, my first wife and I had finished decorating our small flat in Greenwich, South London. The only item we were still searching for was a bedspread.

One Saturday morning, we visited the Harrods bedding department. Right there as we walked in was the absolute perfect bedspread at a cost of £80. This was 30 years ago, so heaven knows what the cost would be today.

A foreign sales assistant, possibly Italian, was so helpful in explaining what a lovely item it was, although she agreed ‘it was a lot of money’. She suggested that we go and have coffee upstairs and think about it, which we did.

We made the decision to purchase the bedspread but the assistant was nowhere to be seen. As she had been so helpful, we decided to return to the store a little later to give the same assistant the sale, in case she had been on commission.

On our return, there were two other sales assistants standing by the till in conversation. My wife and I asked them if ‘the Italian sales lady was available’.

To our astonishment, the reply was: ‘I’m really sorry to tell you, but she passed away a year ago to the day...and we were just talking about her.’

We never said anything but we did purchase the bedspread, which looked fabulous in our room.

The bedspread is long gone now. However, before it was disposed of a small piece was cut from the end and framed as a reminder of what happened.

I still have the item in my possession.

Paul Carugati

A GIFT FROM THE SON I LOST: 'ANDREW WANTED ME TO KNOW HE WAS SAFE'

An acquaintance arrived at Mary Martin's door with flowers

The death of my son Andrew at 21 was particularly difficult for me to bear. He was my only child — a Cambridge undergraduate, highly intelligent and gifted — and I had raised him mainly on my own.

Walking home from shopping some months after his death, I heard him say: ‘I’m going to remember Mother’s Day tomorrow.’ I can only describe this as a telepathic communication, and it was very clear.

I carried on home greatly uplifted. It was a wonderful moment I shall never forget.

The next day, I answered an unexpected ring at my door. A casual acquaintance was there with her arms full of flowers — daffodils, forsythia and pussy willow.

She told me that the flowers were not from her. She said that she was washing up the breakfast dishes when she heard Andrew say: ‘Take some flowers for Mum.’ These were picked from her garden. She told me that nothing like this had ever happened to her.

It had a profound and moving effect on us both. I’d not told anyone about the message the previous day. Neither did I know this lady very well. It was clear that Andrew wanted me to know he was safe.

Mary Martin

My mother passed away in November 1999. In December 2014, I went to a medium.

He asked me if I had lost my mother and who was the Gemini (which was her birth sign). He even named her — Jean.

Then he told me she had to get something off her chest that she was sorry she never told me, and it was about my other sibling.

I am 61 and an only child, but he was adamant that she said there was another sibling.

Family tree: After her mother died in November 1999, a medium told Pauline Holmes she had a sibling

Two days later, I contacted a cousin whom my mother lived with during the war. I asked if, when mum lived with her family, did she have a miscarriage, an abortion or even a baby.

The next words nearly blew me away. My cousin said how sad she was for my mum, and that she had given birth to a baby girl when she was about 19 years old, in 1942!

I stood in my dining room, so stunned and shocked. My cousin had seen the baby lying on a settee in her house. She had just come home with her brother from being evacuated and was told they were looking after it for someone.

A few days later, they took the baby to a house in Southampton where my mother handed the baby over. On their return, my mother was very distressed. My cousin said this is how she knew it was my mum’s child.

I looked on the internet and found a child born in 1942 with my mother’s maiden name, and went to my local register office to obtain a birth certificate. I was told the child had been adopted, which would have been true. There was no father named.

I have tried to trace this person, but have come to a dead end at the moment.

How could this medium know about this if my mother had not told him?

Pauline Holmes

My late husband Mike and I adored each other. We’d been together since I was 16 and he was 19, so imagine how devastated we were to learn he had mesothelioma (asbestos-related cancer).

Mike had worked as a ship’s draughtsman after his apprenticeship in the Fifties, when asbestos was everywhere on the ships.

I nursed Mike single-handed throughout his illness as I couldn’t bear the thought of being parted from him. He died very peacefully sitting next to me, holding my hand, in his favourite chair, four days after his 60th birthday.

I was heartbroken and, as I stroked his hair as he took his last breath, I said: ‘Promise you’ll always be with me, Mike.’ Today, I’m positive that he is.

A week after he died, I was trying to stick four tiles to the wall in the downstairs bathroom, because they’d fallen off. Often my eldest son, Steve, would call in to see me on his way to business meetings for a quick coffee and chat.

This particular morning, I was getting distressed as I couldn’t get the tiles to stick. I suddenly cried out loud: ‘Oh Mike, if only you were here you’d know what to do — and you’d be making me a cup of tea, wouldn’t you?’

Within a couple of minutes, I heard the sound of the kettle in the kitchen. I waited (still in the bathroom) until I heard it click off, then called out to my son: ‘Steve, will you make the tea and coffee please?’, thinking he had called in. 

There was no reply, so I got off my knees and went to the kitchen — but there was no one around and the back door was locked. I went over to the kettle, which was still steaming and scalding hot! The last time the kettle was used was for my breakfast at 7.30am — and it was now 11.15am.

I froze, but then a lovely warm feeling came over me. I said: ‘Is that you, Mike?’ and I bawled my eyes out. So yes, there is life after death. I’m so relieved because I know that I will see my beloved Mike again.

Donna Ayres has been haunted since her brother Paul died

Ann Ash

Patricia Foster chose a property with a balcony after receiving a message from her mother

In 2013, I was sitting at my computer wondering which of two properties to buy. One was overlooking a canal with a balcony, the other was totally different, but they were both nice.

As I was sitting there pondering, all of a sudden I heard an almighty crash behind me. Startled, I jumped up and looked behind me.

A large picture, which had been on the wall for ten years, had come crashing down. But it was intact and there was not a mark on it.

As I picked it up, I saw something written on it in small letters. It said: ‘On the balcony.’

I had bought this picture for my mum, who had lived with us but passed away in 2007. The picture was of two ladies on a balcony looking over a Parisian street.

That was good enough for me. I was definitely going to take the flat with the balcony. Thank you, Mum.

And after a couple of days unpacking, we put the picture on the wall right near the balcony.

I couldn’t believe it, the top of the balcony in the picture was the same colour and shape as the balcony outside my new flat.

All my family say it was definitely the best move I could have made.

Patricia Foster

IT ALL ADDS UP... NUMEROLOGIST STUNNED BY DEAD COUSIN'S MESSAGE

My cousin died suddenly and unexpectedly at the age of 60. A few days later, I was sitting in the kitchen writing my book. I’m a numerologist and I was writing about repeated digits such as 111, 222, 333 and so on.

Suddenly, I heard my cousin’s voice. He said: ‘Count the days.’ I didn’t understand what he meant and then he repeated: ‘Count the days.’ This time as he said it, I somehow understood that he wanted me to count how many days he had been alive.

Using the website timeanddate.com I entered his date of birth and his date of death. I was stunned when I saw the result.

He had lived for exactly 22,222 days!

Hilary Carter

My mum sadly passed away in 2006. I rang my daughters that evening and told them the news.

The next morning my eldest daughter texted me to say that my grandson, who was three at the time, had come into the room that morning, not knowing that Grey Nanny (his name for her) had died. He called me Nanny Bells.

He said: ‘Grey Nanny said that you must tell Nanny Bells that she isn’t to worry, as she is home now!’

Susie Roberts 

_____________________________________________________

ALSO FROM THE DAILY MAIL

 

Meet the son, 10, of Baptist parents who has baffled experts with his vivid and accurate accounts of a past life where he danced on Broadway and acted opposite Mae West

• Ryan, 10, a boy from Muskogee, Oklahoma with Baptist parents claims he has been reincarnated and was an actor and agent in a past life
• He claimed he was Marty Martin, who was in the Mae West film Night After Night and performed on Broadway, after seeing him in a movie still
• Ryan began seeing Dr. Jim Tucker soon after, a highly respected child psychiatrist who works with children who remember past lives
• Even Dr. Tucker was amazed by Ryan's story, and found that 55 of his details match perfectly with Martin's life
• What's more, Martin is such an obscure actor that there were no articles of pieces about him at all, and it took a film archivist to even learn his name
• Ryan also knew the year Martin was born, even though it was listed incorrectly on his public death certificate  

He has acted opposite Mae West, tripped the light fantastic on The Great White Way and even partied with Rita Hayworth, and now Ryan is sharing his stories about life during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

The only problem is that Ryan is a 10-year-old boy from Muskogee, Oklahoma who was born to Baptist parents, and this amazing life of his was a past life.

That being said, his vast amounts of knowledge, vivid recollections of the time and stunningly accurate descriptions of the era have convinced even experts that the young man may have in fact been 

Ryan (above with his mother) a 10-year-old boy from Muskogee, Oklahoma with Baptist parents claims he has been reincarnated and was an actor and agent in a past life

He believes he was Marty Martin (left), who was in the Mae West (right) film Night After Night and performed on Broadway

It all began when Ryan was just 4-years-old his mother Cyndi told Today, and he began having nightmares that neither she or her husband, a local police officer, could find a way to stop.

He would talk about his heart exploding and, more than anything, Hollywood, a place that was thousands of miles away from Oklahoma.

What's more, the reserved youngster would always speak in a matter-of-fact manner during these times. 

Then, after a year of this, he finally sat down his mom.
'He said "Mom, I have something I need to tell you,"' said Cyndi.
'I used to be somebody else.'

Having been raised Baptist, Cyndi did not believe in reincarnation or past lives, and decided to hide her son's admission from his father.

But she slowly became curious and then somewhat convinced the more her son spoke of Hollywood, his five marriages, lavish trips to Europe, his old homes and how all his acting clients kept changing their last names, so she decided to start doing some research on Hollywood during the studio era and shared some of the books she found at the local library with her son.

Then, one day, Ryan had a breakthrough when he saw a still from the from the 1932 movie Night After Night starring Mae West.

'That's me,' Ryan told his mother.

Ryan began seeing Dr. Jim Tucker (above) soon after he revealed his past life, a highly respected child psychiatrist who works with children who remember past lives, and does not think Ryan is not lying

Ryan also recalls parting with Rita Hayworth (above) when he was Martin

Ryan's father (center) is a local police officer and neither her nor his wife knew anything about old Hollywood

Ryan was pointing to an extra in the film, a man with no lines that they later learned was bit-actor turned agent Marty Martin.

That is when Cyndi decided Ryan should talk to someone, and the family found Dr. Jim Tucker, a highly respected child psychiatrist from the University of Virginia who has spent time talking with and studying children who claim to remember past lives.

And even he noted there was something very special, and different, about Ryan.

Most remarkable to Dr. Tucker, besides Ryan's incredible detail, was how accurate his claims matched up with the life of Martin, a virtual unknown who neither Ryan's family nor Dr. Tucker knew anything about, even his name, until they reached out to a film archivist.

The film archivist gave them the name, and they then contacted one of Martin's daughters to ask about his life.

That is when they discovered that 55 of Ryan's statements matched up perfectly with Martin's life - including the street he lived on, how many children he had, how many siblings he had and those aforementioned five marriages.

The most shocking claim however came when Ryan told Dr. Tucker during a session one day that he wondered why God had him die at 61-years-old only to be reincarnated as a baby.

This seemed to clash with Martin's death report, that stated he was 59 at the time he died.

That is until Dr. Tucker looked through old census reports and discovered that the certificate, and not Ryan, was incorrect.

The certificate claimed Martin was born in 1905 when in fact he had been born in 1903 according to the census.

And so, Martin was likely  61-years-old at the time of his death. 

Ryan now says his memories of Martin are starting to fade, and as for Dr. Tucker, he has compiled Ryan's story and other like it in his book Return To Life.

Astrid Brown (Author)

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