Wiltshire, known for its pre-historic mystery sites such as the stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury, ancient mounds and barrows and the famous white horses which are carved into the county's hills, seems to be a focal point for paranormal activity of all kinds. It was the site of one of Britain's most sensational UFO flaps at Warminster. Black dogs are often spotted here too. There is even a forest area known as Black Dog Woods. Crop circles, too, abound in Wiltshire. And ghosts are no exception to the county's paranormal prominence.
Local historian John Girvan tells the tale of a ghostly hitchhiker, a mysterious young woman dressed in old-fashioned clothes who attempted to hitch a lift on the A342. A male driver passed and considered stopping to offer a lift but was put off by the late hour and her unusual appearance. Driving on, after a few minutes he was astonished to find the young lady sitting right beside him in the passenger seat! She didn't stay long, though. When he next looked, she was gone.
Wiltshire is full of centuries-old pubs, many of which seem to have resident ghosts. The Red Lion pub is actually located inside a stone circle and is well-known for its ghostly visitations. A few years back, when an episode of the Most Haunted television series was being filmed at the location, the presenter, Yvette Fielding, fled from a room after she claimed something was snatching at her hair. Her husband promptly re-entered the room with her and, according to his later account, was attacked by some unseen entity and had scratch marks to prove it! Some other Wiltshire pubs are mentioned in our article on Britain's Haunted Pubs
Devizes - Wiltshire's Ghost Hotspot
Devizes seems to be the most happening place in Wiltshire as far as spooks are concerned. The GHOMATS (Ghosts, Hauntings, Orbs, Mystical, Auras, Tarot, and Spirits) is a group of ghost investigators based in the town. They visit locations which are suspected of being haunted and conduct vigils with all of the appropriate equipment. If this sort of thing interests you, and you live in the area, maybe you could join their team too. Or if you own property in Wiltshire which you think may be haunted, you can ask for the Ghomats team to come and investigate it.
John Girvan, a traditional blacksmith and author of many books on the subject of ghosts, runs ghost walks around Devizes, visiting the area's most haunted spots and concluding with a dowsing at the site of the town gallows. He also hosts Ghost Evenings in which many spooky artefacts - including skulls and the skin of executed murderer John Harlow - are discussed and subjected to analysis with a variety of tools and equipment. If you're interested you can learn more or even arrange a booking by visiting his website.
Other Haunted Places In Wiltshire
Devizes isn't the only haunted town in Wiltshire. The medieval city of Salisbury has quite a few ghosts of its own and, during the summer months, guided ghost tours are available. You can contact the Salisbury Tourist Information Centre on 01722 334956 for more details.
Longleat is a splendid stately home in Wiltshire, noted for its architecture as well as its lovely landscaped gardens designed by Capability Brown. It is open to the public and has become a major tourist attraction with its own adventure playground, hedge maze and even a safari! No stately home is complete without a ghost or two and, in this, Longleat does not disappoint. Several of the building's former aristocratic occupants are said to still inhabit it as ghosts including, most famously, Lady Louisa - known as the Green Lady - whose servant lover is said to have been killed by her jealous husband, leaving her eternally distracted by grief.
As should be clear by now, if you're in search of spooky stuff, you could do a lot worse than pay a visit to Wiltshire, where there's sure to be something to pique your interest.
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NIGEL WRIGHT: HIDDEN GEM OF NORTH-WEST ENGLAND
In the ten months or so since my family and I moved up to the northwest barely a day has gone by lest we discover a new and totally fascinating place. Most of these have been wonderful and totally family-friendly but last week my wife and I discovered somewhere, barely a couple of miles from our new home, that at first seemed a fantastic location - full of history and with views to die for. However, upon walking around the location with my wife, who is gifted with clairvoyance and is about as down to earth as they come, we may have discovered one of its hidden secrets, hidden in the mists of time.
So, where is this place of forgotten lives? It is at Heysham, near Morecambe, on the northwest coastline of the UK. The village itself is beautiful - full of small, 17th Century cottages, placed along a small street that leads down to the shore of Morecambe Bay. At the bottom of one of these streets is the small church, beside which is a small pathway that leads up to a quiet, open point of the hill that overlooks the bay itself. It is on this point that the ruins of St Patrick's chapel lie. A few walls remain but it is what surrounds these walls that is the really interesting thing. The chapel itself dates from the 7th Century AD, and here, lying beside the ruins, are some stone carved Viking graves. On the day we visited the chapel, the graves were filled with rain water, which in a strange way seemed to add to their candour. As I looked at these graves, filled as they were, I mused on the idea that in ancient times our ancestors thought that water was an entrance to another world, hence their sacrifices made in lakes, ponds and wells.
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Alright, exactly what is this place called the Other Side?
Sylvia Browne says, "The Other Side is where our spirits come from when we enter the womb waiting to be born and where our spirits go when we die. It is heaven, paradise, more stunningly beautiful then our earthly minds can imagine." She says this higher plane is right here in our midst, "another dimension superimposed on our own world... " She also says, "Its vibrational frequency is much higher than ours, which is why we don't perceive it." Oh, and incidentally, she says you can't age there; you look as young as you want to.
So the Other Side and "this side" are located in the same place but on different dimensional frequencies. You might think you are in a room all alone, but beings could be all around you. They might not perceive you any more than you might not perceive them, although many times if you happen to see a ghost wandering down the hall of your house, this being will see you too.
Sylvia Browne says the Other Side is where our true home is, and says, "We are separated by nothing but a natural transition we call 'death,' a transition that is really the joyful cycle of our eternal spirit going Home again." You could say the Earth plane is school, and the Other Side is our Summer vacation, but at home. Taking a vacation at home? Sounds backwards, because in the earth plane taking a vacation "from" home seems to make sense. But apparently our real Home is so vast, so wonderful, who would want to leave it? Unfortunately, we have to come here for training, learning life's lessons, this school of hard knocks, so we can grow and learn to wake up to the "real world" - which is NOT the earth plane.
So the Other Side is essentially where souls live. Churches may call this heaven, or other traditions refer to Nirvana or Paradise, but it's not an actual location; it's a vibrational frequency, a higher dimensional level. This higher dimension we call the Other Side is not just limited to our planet Earth. I believe it exists on every life-bearing planet. In fact, I believe that not only the Other Side, but many dimensional levels exist throughout the Universe. Perhaps here on Earth the Other Side is the closest level to our earthly plane.
The exhilarating movie, "What Dreams May Come" suggests that the Other Side is a beautiful place where you create things the way you want them to be. Each person can create his or her own personal world, whether it be gorgeous landscapes or a wonderful villa home, or what-have-you. Each person's creation doesn't conflict with anyone else's, because there are no limitations there, there is only vast spaciousness. I believe the Other Side is worlds within worlds, or dimensions within dimensions. There are no time or space constraints there, because its parameters are eternity and infinity. And yet there are no great distances. If you wish to travel ten-thousand light-years away, you can be there in a split-second. That leads to my own personal dream, when I hope to reach the Other Side, to be able to freely travel to the stars and planets, and other galaxies, and to explore and experience the whole Universe eventually, not just planet Earth; yes, to boldly go where no human with a physical body has gone before - because if they have, they are actually astral projecting.
Although things may appear just as physical as it did in the Earth plane, things are far more refined and vivid and intense to the senses. Back on the earth plane everything would appear very dull, dim, and dismal in comparison. The Other Side is the place of light after all, where colors are vivid, bright, and clear.
Now, I have many questions I don't have answers to, although I can guess. Can you eat on the Other Side? Do you have blood-and-guts bodies? Do they have bathrooms there? And toilet paper? Or are your insides made up of ectoplasm, or just energy? Is it true you can look as young as you want to, and not age? Are you free to go beyond the planet Earth? Can you fly around and go anywhere you want? Can you meet famous celebrities up their? Like Elvis? Gandhi? Or Jesus? Can anyone make mistakes there, a big boo-boo, or even "sin"? Are bad people allowed there, or do they go somewhere else? Are there separate dimensional levels for people depending on how enlightened or unenlightened they are?
I don't believe in hell, not as a physical locality, but I say it's more of a state of mind. Most likely lost souls might create their own personal hells, or so I have heard, and this is also what makes them ghosts. So they're probably stuck in this self-created hell, until they wake up, or repent, get therapy, or seek help. Sylvia Browne calls this hellish frequency the "Dark Side."
Many ghosts who are trapped in this limbo dimension between the Earth plane and the Other Side might be experiencing their personal hell, although they are usually confused and disoriented and not aware that they have died. But I believe like many psychics and clairvoyants do, that it's up to the individual beings to decide when they're is going to move on, and by moving on I mean moving on into the Light that will free these ones and lead them to their true home, the Other Side.
So the next time you see a ghost, who is most likely lost, don't say, "I don't believe in ghosts," but smile and ask, "Can I help you?"
Copyright 2006 -2012 by R. R. Stark -- All Rights Reserved
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"One of the spookiest stories of a celebrity ghost involves the alleged entity of actor George Reeves, best know to a generation of pre-adolescent Baby Boomers for playing the Man of Steel on TV's Adventures of Superman" throughout the 1950s, and whose dark and mysterious tale was dramatized in the 2006 film "Hollywoodland".
Although charming and likeable, Reeves was also naughtier than his clean-cut TV alter ego and enjoyed all the illicit perks of the Hollywood nightlife before being found shot in the head in the bedroom of his modest Benedict Canyon home (1579 Benedict Canyon Drive, Los Angeles) in 1959. Los Angeles police ultimately ruled Reeves' death a suicide and blamed it on his inability to get an acting job playing anything other than the caped super hero.
The cops glossed over the fact that Reeves was launching a renewed career as a TV director, and dodged the fact that the actor's longtime acquaintance who bought the Benedict Canyon home for him, was insanely jealous after Reeves dumped her for another woman. She was married to a powerful studio insider with connections to both the police and organized crime, who quietly cleaned things up when showbiz types landed in serious trouble. Then there was the lovely young club-hopping socialite Reeves planned to marry who's account of the night Reeves died had more holes in it than the actor did by the end of the evening.
Whether suicide or murder, all the unanswered questions may have left one very restless spirit in Benedict Canyon. In 1969, a decade after Reeves' death, rumors circulated about some unusual happenings at the former Superman's home, but his lover Toni Mannix-who inherited it from her ex-lover and had struggled to keep it rented for years-refused to discuss it.
The renters revealed that one night while entertaining guests in the living room, they heard noises. The bedroom-Reeves' bedroom-previously neat and orderly, was a mess: linens torn off the bed, clothes strewn around. They straightened the room and returned downstairs to find that all the drinks on the coffee tables had been moved to the kitchen. Another time, the couple's German shepherd barked at the bedroom door furiously, then suddenly cowered and slunk away as the tenants peeked inside and discovered the bed had been moved across the room.
The last straw came around 3 a.m. one summer morning when the apparent ghost of Reeves, dressed in his TV Superman costume, appeared in the living room. Within the hour, the tenants had moved out.
Daily Planet editor Perry White's oft-quoted exclamation "Great Casesar's Ghost!" might now be modified, exchanging the Roman emperor for the Last Son of Krypton.
The Afterlife of George Reeves
Actor George Reeves died at 1:59 am on June 16, 1959. Not the comic book character, of course, but the man who personified the "real" Superman for an entire generation of television fans. Even though the initial coroner's report listed Reeves' death as an "indicated suicide", after more than four decades there are many who do not believe that he killed himself. The death remains an unsolved mystery.
Could this be why ghostly phenomena has been reported at the former Reeves house ever since? Many believe that the ghostly appearances by the actor lend credence to the idea that he was murdered. Over the years, occupants of the house have been plagued by not only the sound of a single gunshot that echoes in the darkness, but strange lights and even the apparition of George Reeves.
After Reeves' death, realtors attempted to sell the house to settle the actor's estate. Unfortunately though, they had trouble. Occupants would not stay long because they would report inexplicable noises in the upstairs bedroom where George had been killed. When they would go to investigate the sounds, they would find the room was not as they had left it. Often, the bedding would be torn off, clothing would be strewn about and some reported the ominous odor of gunpowder in the air. One tenant also reported that his German Shepherd would stand in the doorway of the room and would bark furiously as though he could see something his owner's could not. There is also documentation of an extraordinary occurrence when two Los Angeles sheriffs were assigned to watch the house after neighbors reported hearing screams, gunshots, and lights going on and off during the night.
New occupants moved out quickly, becoming completely unnerved after encountering Reeves' ghost, decked out in his Superman costume! The first couple who spotted him were not the first, nor the last, to see him either. Many later residents saw him too and one couple became so frightened that they moved out of the house the same night. Later, the ghost was even reported on the front lawn by neighboring residents.
In the 1980's, while the house was being used as a set for a television show, the ghost made another startling appearance. He was seen by several of the actors and crew members before abruptly vanishing, creating yet another mystery in this strange and convoluted case!
Sources:
www.nypost.com,
Hollywood Haunted - Laurie Jacobson - 1994
Ghost Stories of Hollywood - Barbara Smith - 2000
www.prairieghosts.com
paranormal.about.com
www.seeing-stars.com
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Jackolantern with brilliant Buddha carving (thebuddhistblog.blogspot.com)
Buddhists certainly have ghost stories. These restless or "hungry ghosts" (PRETAS) have an entire section of the ancient texts devoted to them called the Petavatthu. These ghost stories (a counterpart to stories of celestial planes called the "Vimanavatthu") tell tales of karma and its result. They will be recognizable to the Western as rewards and punishments for well and ill done deeds.
* Real paranormal activity: laghost.com
* Investigating the paranormal (Patt Morrison)
* "On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears"
* Zombies, cyborgs, or a rare disease: science and film
A "peta" is a person who has been reborn on the ghost plane, an unfortunate subhuman destination. Ghosts are not technically "disembodied"; they have subtle bodies varying in transparency and density. While they may be creepy, grieving, and clingy, they are not generally "evil." They are hungry and desperate. This is because when they died, they were very confused as happens when the death is untimely, unfair, sudden, or violent. Furthermore, excessive attachment to relationships or property leads to rebirth on a plane not far removed from this one. They are not adapting to the loss. Most significantly, violating one or more of the Five Precepts is karma (action) that, if it ripens at death, leads to an unfortunate rebirth.
Mara on the "Day of the Dead," LA 2007
Rather than coping with what has been lost, hungry ghosts are clinging to the past. Much like humans who live as hungry ghosts, they find themselves stuck in spite of wishing to move on to a better state. Grasping at and clinging to lost treasure, a lost loved one, or unfinished business keeps them stuck, no longer human but lingering here. The Buddha found the Indian term "peta" (Sanskrit, "preta") appropriate. For although hungry ghosts have departed, they linger and loiter around the perimeter of houses, outside the walls, at thresholds, gates, and doorposts waiting. They are neither fully in the human world nor completely separated from it. Yet, while they lack the karma to participate in it, they can be helped by humans.
Japanese depiction of a wretched "hungry ghost" with a large empty belly, naked, thirsty, voracious, and miserable (mangashare.com).
HOW TO HELP THE DEPARTED
The danger of making contact with ghosts is that they are very needy and clingy, even parasitic. To interact with them is somewhat like feeding a cat and expecting it to go away afterwards. To help, as for example to benefit lost relatives one misses and worries about, an offering may be made in their name. This skillful karma is the doer's alone. However, if the ghost approves and applauds the act, that very act of approval is a mental deed that benefits the doer, that is to say, the ghost.
If the deed is very good -- such as giving to the Sangha or feeding and clothing many people -- the approving, lauding, and praising of it will be very profitable, very karmically beneficial. It is as simple as exclaiming "Well done!" ("Saddhu!") In some cases, such approval will be enough to immediately liberate them from their miserable state. In any case, it will certainly benefit the doer. It even has the potential to profit other unseen beings (such as "devas") who, aware of the wholesome deed, make the mental karma of approving of it. This is why Buddhist ceremonies and group meditations end with the "sharing of merits." It gives other beings the opportunity to share in the good karma. Far from costing those who share merit, it compounds the benefits.
Profitable karma -- specifically, keeping the Five Precepts -- ripens either in the human or lower celestial planes. Unskillful deeds that come to fruition do so in the animal, ghost, titan, and unspeakably woeful destinations. Hungry ghosts do not come from planes we would call "hell" (naraka) nor are they "demons." They can nevertheless be unpleasant, "unclean," upset poltergeists, who are noisy, disruptive, and terrifying. While potentially more active around Halloween, their activity depends on human activity. (Not only ghosts, but inimical earthbound devas -- corresponding to wood nymphs, faeries, elemental spirits, and entities in Western lore -- may not necessarily want humans interrupting their sporting ways, celebrations, and play).
That having been said, for the most part exonerating ghosts, there are malevolent beings:
* Ogres/beasts (yakkhas)
* Reptilians/serpents (nagas)
* Dwarfs/gnomes (kumbandas)
* "Killers"/demons (maras; Scandinavian, Mares)
* Titans (asuras or former "devas", "angels" who were cast out of the Tavatimsa celestial world or "heaven," whose general antagonism is towards the remaining "devas" and their king-of-kings Sakka rather than humans).
Whereas later schools often simplify Buddhist cosmology down to six worlds (depicted in this Tibetan "thangka"), the Buddha in fact detailed 31 Planes of Existence.That all of this echoes Christian themes is in no way an accident or coincidence; these ancient Eastern mythologies may very well be the root of the descriptions found in European lore. Greek culture and mythology, which marks the beginning of "Western" civilization, was strongly influenced by its contact with India ("see" Bactria). And all of the mythological and hybrid creatures mentioned in Buddhist cosmology are pre-Buddhist Indian legends.
In Buddhism the difference (and this is a central yet woefully neglected point that non-meditating scholars fail to appreciate) is that this pantheon of "mythological" creatures is verifiable. The same is true of entities in Buddhist physics and psychology (Abhidharma), such as:
* elementary particles (kalapas)
* consciousnesses or thought-moments (cittas)
* the factors of Dependent Origination
How? With the power of jhana one turns attention toward them and the unseen becomes visible. Because these things are so far removed from normal awareness, however, they are hard to believe in. Therefore many scholars and most Western Buddhists choose to regard all such things as quaint myths and philosophical speculations rather than real and literal things that can be known directly. Pagans and Pegabus observe solstices and other pre-Christian celebrations like All Hallow's Eve (AP).
Anyone who refuses to believe in "ghosts" and hair raising things that go bump in the night might consider visiting a farm house, a haunted house, or weakening one's natural defenses by consuming sugar from artificially colored goop to commercial chocolate to alcohol. If one wishes to be frightened at Halloween, there are unseen beings to frighten one. But sugar, which is visible and ubiquitous, cripples the body, weakens the aura around it, and exposes the subtle bodies and fields, making one susceptible to all manner of harm. While the immune system is knocked out for hours at a time whenever sugar is ingested, it seems Halloween calls for inordinate consumption of candy and spirits.
Asia has Obon, a tradition of expressing filial piety by remembering the dead. Similarly, Latin America observes a holiday called the Day of the Dead. It is wonderful that North America has at least one night a year to acknowledge death, darkness, and discomfort. So step out of the comfort zone and address what's in the closet. It's not likely to be nearly as scary as it is while it rattles around in there ignored.
On the other hand, (attention Goths) anyone morbidly obsessed with sadness, suffering, loss, or pessimism would do well to avoid wallowing in negativity for a day to dress up as a bright faerie, a loving "bodhisattva", or even a repugnant Teletubby.Halloween has become an all-American celebration expressing our:
* fetishes
* anxieties
* impulses
* shadows
* trickiness (when we don't get treats)
* obsession with celebrity
* fear of disease and death
But Halloween is actually nothing more than the eve before the ancient Day of the Dead ("Dia de los "Muertos, "November 1st). It may be nothing more than a chance to vent and grapple with issues most of us would rather not deal with but which impinge on our consciousness anyway:
* war
* crime
* sex symbols
* social transgressions
* wild revelry
Not coincidentally, these five all-American obsessions correspond to Buddhism's FIVE PRECEPTS we otherwise live by when we refrain from:
* killing (even under the banner of war)
* stealing (defrauding people and institutions)
* sexually misconducting ourselves
* lying/slandering/perjuring or speaking harshly/divisively/idly
* intoxicants that abuse the body and lead to negligence
Halloween has morphed from a childish pastime to a sexy and psychologically significant adult event. So play dress up and pretend. Don a costume of whatever you dream or dread you might become -- and get out there. This is the best soon-to-be-holiday on the calendar next to Vesak, which is still the coolest.
Frightening landscape in of the Great Waste, a euphemism for the many woeful but impermanent planes of existence beneath the human realm.
by Seven Jaini and Ashley Wells
