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P
O
O
PARAN
tourism by Theo Berry & Harry Barnes
In our modern world of highspeed Internet connections,
nuclear bombs and Ikea furnishings, it is no surprise that the
notion of believing in anything
more terrifying than ourselves
seems somewhat absurd. And,
outside of the occasional
Hollywood teen yarn about four
kids trapped in a house behind
soundproof see-through screens
whilst something kills them in a
strangely satisfying but bizarre
kind of way, there’s no real mainstream mention of ghosts.
Surprisingly, I, personally, have
never seen an article on haunted
areas of Bath and Bristol on HTV.
(Sightings on the back of a postcard). So, settling down at my
computer, and sliding my coffeestained plans of world domination
aside, and nestling into a fluffy
Ikea sofa, I decided to do a little
investigation of my own.
Being an odd corner of the
world, the West Country is host to
all manner of weird and wonderful
“manifestations” who posses a
general penchant for Somersetshire haunts. I compiled a small
collection of the strangest for your
delectation.
South-west of sunny Bath and
towards Combe, lies the sleepy village of Aller which has captured
the imagination of several visitors.
Not least the ferocious damselsin-distress-for-breakfast dragon
that once graced the moors of the
decode
november
/ december
West Country. In the days before
Rolf Harris, Pet Rescue, and the
RSPCA, so legend has it, the general fashion was to send a knight
out to dispatch such animals. So
one man did. As the unwanted pet
slumped to the ground, it let loose
a final flame which killed the
knight / well-meaning Australian
veterinary surgeon in question. He
now lives on in spirit form wandering the moors of Currel Rivel;
an area named after him.
Next on the list is a ghost of a
naked Roman soldier who is sup-
tions of those involved. On these
ghost walks, tourists, and locals
alike have their paranormal sensibilities tried and tested. The walk
itself could be taken as being
rather an extraordinary piece of
avant-garde theatre if it wasn’t for
the fact that these walks have
been running since 1974, and that
the founders were a distinguished
Bath historian and one equally
distinguished “psychic”. But it is
only afterwards, staring at the
astonishing glittering firmament
of stars that furnish Bath with
THE ROMANTIC POET SAMUEL TAYLOR
COLERIDGE, ONCE WROTE OF THEATRE THAT ITS ADEPT ABILITY AT DRAWposedly makes a reasonably regular appearance around Bath
Abbey. However, as several astute
‘critics’ have shrewdly observed:
how did anyone know “it” was a
Roman soldier if it was plainly not
wearing any Roman garments? In
any case, a policeman gave chase
to the soldier only to see it/him
disappear into thin air. In a similar
manner to many a confiscated
substance.
So where do these apparitions
come from? As I gaze around Bath
on one of many of the regular
eight o’clock ghost walks, I can’t
help but wonder at the imagina-
their light, night after night, and
with a brisk biting–coat cold walk
home, that I felt left to exclusively
my own opinions. In trying to console or even rationalise the journey into the alleged “metaphysicality” that I had undergone I was
drawn to looking into the possible
explanations that “sceptics” have
come up with in the past.
The Romantic poet Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, once wrote of
theatre that its adept ability at
drawing us into the world of a play
is from the audience’s own “willing
suspension of disbelief”. Coleridge
himself also took a journey to
Malta in 1804 where he had several opium-fuelled visions which he
described as “ethereal” and “monstrously attir’d”. It was in a state of
semi-consciousness that Coleridge
experienced what others might
have described as a “visitation”.
Rather than labelling it as such,
the encounter was quickly tailored
into poetry with a number of extra
parts added to the mammoth
‘Rime of The Ancient Mariner’ and
a poem named ‘The Phantom’ as
well as a piece which many critics
have viewed as being some form
of conclusion to ‘Kubla Kahn’; a
poem called ‘The Knight’s Tomb’.
In all these works we see the same
unmentionable metaphysical
“creature” or “spectre” of “a
dream” come to the poet or speaker, and leave with him/her/it a
sense of longing, a sense of loss as
well as a sense of learning. But no
more prevalent are such sensations than in the process of grief.
To what extent can a more imperial mind placate the marvellousness of a possibly paranormal
encounter? Would it be correct to
suggest that such things seen in
the shadows, seen in myths, seen
in ghosts, and seen in folklore are
merely memory exercises to eulogise figures of the past whom have
long since lost their context? Or
else to further instil a sense of
morality and religiosity into the
society of the time? After all, we do
not and can not ever fully prove
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illustrations by Lucy Sheridan
the non-existence or existence of
metaphysical things. To further
divorce our “suspension of disbelief”, it could easily be said that
these visitations are purely written
into folklore for reasons of
tourism. However, none of these
arguments, to my mind, seemed
convincing. So I went further on
my trail towards ghost hunting. I
had heard of a man who had first
hand experience of a ‘presence’ in
one of the locations on the ghost
walk. I was fascinated.
To look at, this man, who wishes
regularly felt this presence.
Additionally, he mentioned seeing a “figure” in the projector box
whilst clearing up after a showing.
Naturally, I asked the expected
questions about medication,
background and so on but he
seemed normal enough. I tried a
gullible trick, the old point-at-thespot-on-the-shirt-that-doesn’texist-and-flick-upwards joke but
he didn’t fall for it. It did strike me,
however, that with 21st-century
society’s waning interest into spirituality and growing cynicism on
-NG US INTO THE WORLD OF A PLAY
IS FROM THE AUDIENCE’S OWN
“WILLING SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF”
to remain anonymous, was a longserving employee in Bath’s Robins
Cinema. There was nothing
unusual about him that I noticed.
No “glittering eye” like the Mariner
character of Coleridge’s poem. Nor
was there the Scooby-Doo trademark peg leg and parrot get-up.
Just a regular Bath ‘Joe’. Telling his
tale was a relatively short process.
There was no thunder and lightning either, just a quiet cup of tea
and a couple of hob-nobs. He
mentioned that he’d felt a presence in the projector box area.
And, what’s more, that it was him
and his fellow co-workers who
all matters metaphysical that perhaps ghost stories are a valuable
asset in, at the very least, reassurance.
After all this paranormal randomnimity, perhaps even if Curry
Rivel, the dragon requisition officer, never existed and even if the
Roman soldier was merely
brought on through bingeing on
some substance or other, and that
the presence in the box was just a
draft, I cannot deny the sense with
which it has left me. A sense of
longing, a sense of loss, and a
sense of learning. }
WHAT DO WE
MEAN BY….
‘Paranormal.’
The OED definition of
‘Paranormal’ as phenomena
‘beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding’ is not
strictly suggested by the entomology of the word. Interestingly
‘paranormal’ could mean either ‘a
deviation from the norm’ (from
the Greek para: beside, amiss or
irregular) or ‘a protection from
the norm’ (from the Italian parare:
to shield, ward off). Perhaps these
confusions of sense account for
the variety of reactions, from fear
to fascination, people have to the
paranormal.
‘Ghost.’
We tend to think of ghosts as
spectral apparitions of dead
people. Actually we use a whole
host of other meanings for the
word regularly, perhaps without
noticing: ‘the computer’s given up
the ghost,’ and ‘he used a ghost
write,’. In these cases there is a
common denominator, which is
essentially a ‘will that drives’ or in
other words ‘a soul,’ coming from
the Old English gast. All of which
means if there is a ghost hanging
out near you it isn’t doing so without purpose – it’s there for a reason, which can’t be a good thing.
‘Supernatural.’
The prefix ‘super-’ comes from
the Latin for ‘above, beyond,’ so
our understanding of ‘supernatural’ depends entirely on what we
view as the limits of nature.
Hence one can understand the
supernatural as being activity
that seems to defy the restrictions of life and death (nature
having no role in what happens to
our souls after death.)
Alternatively, extra-terrestrial
activity might also be supernatural
being beyond, as it were, the scope
of Mother Nature. The OED, however, has ‘natural’ as being ‘not
made or caused by humankind,’ in
which case all human activity is in
effect ‘supernatural.’ Not so scary
after all then!
‘Psychic.’
Psychic could easily mean
Ghostly, and vice versa, as the
roots of both (in this case the
Greek word psukhe) mean ‘breath,
life, or soul.’ It is just an accident
of language that the psychic is
commonly understood to be a scientifically inexplicable, yet socially
acceptable, property of one’s
mind, rather than a disembodied
apparition of the soul. Astral projection’s just fine and dandy as
long as you’ve got a living body
for your psyche to return to I suppose. If you ask me that’s just discrimination against the dead and
a lawsuit waiting to happen; can
you imagine the furore if the
Ghostbusters nicked Granny
Weatherwax while she was out
borrowing? }
Illustrations by Lucy Sheridan
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Paranormal
Ghost
Supernatural
Psychic
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