The Haunting of David Mitchell

I think that the prevalence of ghost stories in English is due to the fact that there are sections of the population who cannot see them, predominantly I think the Anglo-Saxon members. In all cultures but our own, survival after death is a given and rituals have evolved to make sure that these ghosts do not impinge on the everyday living. The only vestiges we have for this ritual exorcism is some local vicar standing there spouting platitudes about someone they never knew. The last example I had of this was so bad that even the wake went by the board! That and Halloween are a poor substitute at placating the spirits and it is not surprising that some stick around. Societies where ghosts are accepted have the most ritual, e.g. the Celtic side of our population.
Could I make a plea for a less sceptical attitude? I have lived in several houses that were haunted. Being half Anglo/Saxon and half Welsh, I very rarely see ghosts except as a peripheral view but other effects do occur far too regularly to be dismissed with ' I should take more water with it'. The closing of doors, sounds that have no explanation, acquaintances who have behaved far too convincingly to be just acting' on seeing something . One room mate at University never went in that bathroom again whilst another saw so many in the old houses that made up our hall of residence that he left after the third change of room.Even the Warden of the hall sympathised with him and advised students to keep quiet about it.
The second example that happened to me personally makes me feel ashamed now. I lived with two girlfriends [ one of whom became my wife ] in a terraced house in my University town. We had several flatmates but nobody stayed very long in the room they occupied. It never occurred to me until the latest residence made such a noise overnight that I felt I had to comment on it the next day. She hadn't been in at all.
Later my step son used to ask where 'Doctor Who' went to and my wife and he heard someone going up and down the stairs all the time. Finally the room was taken by a Ghanaian who had been seen on the campus behaving strangely. I couldn't in all charity turn him away so he took the room, along with his wife. They were, I think, Catholics or Baptist but were going to the other church's services. It was enough to give my wife and myself paranoia. So when they woke us up in the middle of the night, screaming and praying to God to save them from the Devil, we panicked, dressed and went to the nearest phone box for the police. The poor guy must have been on some list somewhere because the police didn't turn up but ambulance men with instructions to take the man to the local mental institution. Later his wife, who moved out very soon after, explained that a 'demon' had appeared in their room and was throwing the furniture around. Fortunately the man was later released and went on to complete his studies but I still feel perhaps we behaved rather too hastily.
It may all be dismissed as anecdotal evidence by the sceptics but there are enough posts here to indicate that something is happening. Being a cat lover who moved into a house owned by many cat lovers in the past, at this time of year my wife and I are made aware of a lot of feline behaviour not attributable to our now lonely Arripussalom. The heavy weight landing on the duvet, the sound of miaows and the occasional sighting of stranger cats is too frequent to be ignored. The closest I have come to seeing one recently was last Thursday, through a doorway from the kitchen into our sun lounge. It used to have a cat flap to the outside and the entrance from the other lounge was locked where Arrow was busy on the sofa cleaning. Even a Muslim friend of my son saw one at the same time as my wife. It then disappeared as did Ramesh very rapidly. He has never returned.
I don't write this as a rag to attack sceptics with but as an appeal for more open minds. Apparently there is one country in Northern Europe where there is total denial. It is maintained that there are no ghosts there. Yet this is a country where mental illness is too high to be explained satisfactorily. It may be ok for David Mitchell to deny the phenomena but to deny that other people have different experiences and are disturbed by them; i.e. they are all crazy, is doing a great disservice to the community and to psychiatric practices. How many cases of hearing voices are being solved by stuffing patients full of anti-hallucinogenics, or left out of 'the community' by pure scientific rigour and scepticism,doctors and the same people who decry religion as having no role in the modern world. I agree, if it is left to Evangelical Christianity or 'TV psychics' I too worry. It may be that by a little more understanding and compassion for and by the churches, people who do have genuine second sight, clairvoyance or hear voices may not be shunned and ridiculed by an unfeeling world. Remember, we all end up dead.

Historical Conspiracy Theories and Weird and Wacky Ideas

Post on Historical Conspiracy Theories and Weird and Wacky Ideas on the History Police.

    I have long been interested in what I call  ‘ the other side’ of history aka ‘the stories that they don’t tell us’, simply because I, like a Missouran, prefer ‘ don’t tell me, show me. Partly this was due to the first ever BBC ‘Timewatch’. To see two academic historians coming to virtual blows over some detail of a historical subject fascinated me. I don’t remember what they were arguing about but it certainly alerted  me to the fact that history can be both divisive and important. Having now acquired a library of old history books I have read enough ‘ canonical’ texts to realise that only parts supporting  the author’s thesis have been allowed to intrude. I have also read enough to find that I am unlikely ever to find resolution and ‘seeking the truth ’ is an impossible task.
    The problem with anyone dipping their toes in the whole ocean of historical research is that one can never read all the books, footnotes, translations, abstracts and narratives and still lead anything like a normal existence. I cannot understand medieval French even if I could distinguish it from the various dialects and secretarial hands and shorthands, let alone Latin, Hebrew, Gothic German or even Middle English. To have access to all the relevant documents I would have to be in several places at once and have a God like omniescence, certainly to get through the barriers that are imposed upon a mere ‘ fellow traveller’ in the lands of research, let alone including  those documents denied to all under the ‘Rumsfeld definition’ of the unknown.
    The problem is exacerbated by the need for a definite ideological bias that seems to haunt academic historiography. I remember a search for ‘Marxist’ truth within my own discipline was required; never could stand being told where to stand. Similarly, any gender constraints, any religious dogma, political ‘reality’ or ‘absolute authority’ gets my back up before it starts. Having been educated in several fields and as an auto didact, I feel that there should be no barriers to what can be considered, investigated or thought as long as Occam’s razor is at least acknowledged as is Sherlock Holmes’ redaction of it.
    Academia is also haunted by the hunt for funds and it is seriously constricting all areas of endeavour. One dare not mention Psi or homeopathy in scientific circles for fear of losing your grants, or Dan Brown amongst several others. It has always been thus. He/she who has the gold makes the rules. They also write the legends and, more subtly, allow a certain amount of oral history to do their work for them. Propaganda has many faces and a lot longer pedigree than any Aryan interpretation. So when ‘ the History Police’ debate ‘ Conspiracy theories and Weird and Wacky Ideas’ they may be treading along too strict a path of orthodoxy. However unlikely they may seem, conspiracies do exist to hide truth, weird and wacky ideas may lead to avenues of research that may prove fruitful and dogmatism exists to put a stop to all questioning, which I am sure that the ‘History Police’ do not intend as their objective.
    Just to get your nightsticks swinging; How about dolmens  being designed by hunter gatherers as cool stores for large harvests of fish, game or cereals; only later being  utilised as tombs? Evidence? Archaeology shows wooden and turved structures surrounding the dolmens, similar to barrows and long graves  but also fish drying structures in Scandanavia; Pottery shards show both animal, fish and cereals and some form of accounting on the side; Shards also show two large circular markings on one side [ see markings for survival amongst animals ] Location near to sea and rivers known to have large harvest of sardines , eels and salmon etc; location on hills  away from predators and easily defended. But I know I'm crazy.

As a sidebar. I too am frustrated by the lack of footnotes but must point out that my word processor [ipages for Mac] does not allow me to do either footnotes or accept British English spelling.