At last found a ghost!

“Rumour is going about that the Psychical Society has at last found a ghost.” The Society for Psychical Research, one of Britain’s longest running psychical and paranormal research organisations, although I know they won’t be happy with me using the term paranormal, has been the focus of derisory articles, spoofs and offensive newspaper articles, especially during the late 1800s and early 1900s. During the last four years archival research into the history of Britain’s most haunted houses, I have chanced upon many articles that comment about S.P.R.’s alleged activities. I will publish more of these articles in future posts, but if anything it has given me a renewed respect for the S.P.R. and those pioneers who battled on to continue running the organisation. This piece highlights the approach of many journalists when dealing with ghosts and the S.P.R., the St James’s Gazette wrote in June 1885; “The committee have, we believe, hired houses warranted to be haunted by the most unexceptionable spectres, have heroically slept in the haunted chamber night after night, and have not so much heard a sigh or seen the least symptom of a faint blue light. Things were at their worst when a change came which […]

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