Why The Paranormal ?

I thought it might be worth posting a short explanation to how and why I now feel the need to investigate the paranormal. After all this isn't something that has come out of the blue, but has developed until I myself realised what I needed to do.

I have always questioned the world around me, wondered about the how and the when, even the why, things and events occurred. I guess I can thank my parents for that as they always gave us the gift of free thinking, self discovery and personal investigation. They never thrust upon us their views, religious or otherwise, but only encouraged us to question what was around us to come to our own conclusions. Well at least that is what I think they hoped for us, but for me that information has only now in my thirties been realised. I would be the first to admit that I have made mistakes and things in my life have not gone according to plan, but to be honest that has been in the majority, out of my control. More recently, it was these life events of mine which led me to see once again that nothing is black and white.

To give myself something else to work on and think about I returned to a passion of mine, which is writing. Hence the development of this Blog! However, after previous attempts to write fiction I have made the discovery that I quite enjoy discovering things. My interest in history returned to me, but this time with a twist of Paranormal.

The Paranormal has always interested me, at one point I was convinced there was a ghost outside my room. I was five years old and later my father proved that the footsteps of the ghost was actually hot water pipes. I then realised that the unexplainable, in some cases could be explained! My interest expanded and I read on the subject, but lacked any true evidence of paranormal existance! Until the day of my grandfathers funeral. I was sat down with my cousin, when she told me or I may have asked, but basically it came to light she could talk to the dead.

Skeptical I tested her medium abilities by asking her to describe the inside of my best mates house, who she didn't know or had met. To be fair she done this exactly right, but mentioned a painting above the sofa which was incorrect. However, she remained adament about the location and what the painting was of.

It wasn't until a while later when I ran the story passed my best mate that he confirmed when his grandfather was alive (the person my cousin spoke to) the picture my cousin described existed where she said it was. My cousin had been 100% correct.

I then realised the wider scope of the paranormal.

Following that my experiences were few and reduced to reading the odd book or story.

Until I moved to Coventry and got involved with my ex-girlfriend. Her mum had an interest in the Paranormal and even conducted a few EVP sessions when I was there. The results of which were minimal, inconclusive, but still a little spooky. She also introduced me to Tarrot cards and the theory of prediction. I don't think my ex liked the fact I was interested in her mum's weird hobby! Suffice to say the time I spent as a bystander in her mum and friends paranormal experiments have enlightened me slightly.

For the years whilst I was married my interest in the Paranormal was put on a back burner and even following my divorce I didn't really return. That was until recently, when my new girlfriend drew my attention back to the Paranormal though her interests. Which has lead me to Clophill and its local myths and stories of hauntings.

So, there it is, nothing special or dramatic, just a pure simple interest developed over time and exposure. Unfortunetly I was never haunted during my life and I don't recall signing up to do battle with evil deamons, but I do search for proof and the truth.

Well that's my angle, why not comment on this post and tell me yours?

A Short Stop At Clophill !

Last Monday saw me with a little time on my hands, so I thought it was a good time to pop to Clophill and have a little wonder around the site in the daylight by myself!

However, I wasn't alone! A couple of teenagers were using the old church site for their own reasons, and to be honest I don't think they were searching for proof of the Paranormal!

I have to admit even though I felt like I was intruding upon the couple, the church on top of the hill, in the daylight still had me a little on edge. However, I didn't feel odd or as if anything was watching me, accept maybe the couple.

I rang my cousin to discuss some points that she had mentioned. She directed me towards a grave stone, but unfortunetly it was unreadable. And thus we couldn't confirm her belief that it was the daughter of a woman called Jenny. A spirit my cousin picked up on whilst tuning into the location.

More on Jenny will come later. I also tried to locate a Well on the site, but was unsuccesful.

To be honest I think a more detailed visit is required, perhaps even with my cousin so she can pick up on things more directly!

All in all though a good little visit. I have been to the church before, but not in as much detail. It is a wonder to see and I can easily imagine the fear it can create in the dead of night. I am now eager to see what secrets this location hides, if any!

This Farsight File is officially open and in full swing.

Putting It Together !!

Firstly, my apollogies for not adding to this blog for a little while, but things as ever have been busy.


Where to start !!


Well, what was going to be about me learning or teaching myself to investigate the Paranormal has now developed in to so much more of a greater possiblility. Obviously, nothing has been set in concrete, but I am forever hopeful that something good will come out of what is now everyone's efforts.




Let me explain..

I have written and explained earlier, my plan for the first two Farsight Files and Paranormal Investgations was to investigate Clophill Church and Minsden Chapel. This I am happy to say is still the case. However, after some preliminary investigating and digging around on the internet, I found some others interested in helping out!

First up, I was speaking to my little sister about the project. I can't remember exactly how it came about, but we decided it may be a good idea to film the whole and maybe create a documentary type programme on it. Possibly even a series !!


Second up, I discovered some experts in the field of Paranormal Investigation. A group who's method's I trust as their approach is similar to my own. That is they will attempt to disprove before they will conclude the possibility of paranormal activity. As they sate on their website http://www.insearchofproof.co.uk/ ;


'In Search of Proof are a team of paranormal investigators whoes aim is to prove or disprove the existence of the paranormal through the use of scientific experiments and spiritualist mediums. As a team they hope to find some defining evidence that cannot be disproved. In the past they have visited such "haunted" locations as Farnham Castle, Hellfire Caves and the Galleries of Justice.'




Hopefully, all going well the team will be able to assist us on our investigations.


Then, I spoke to my cousin about the Clophill site and briefly my intentions. Another person was soon involved. However, the only difference here was that my cousin is a medium and was able to pick up some bits of information regarding the site. As ever with these things, we will have to investigate to back them up.


The interest hasn't stopped there either! Through the magic of Facebook I also started talking to an old School friend who also has an interest in the Paranormal and wishes to get involved with the investigation.


It seems now that this has evolved into a greater, better investigation and with a possibility of documenting the whole thing as documentary or even a documentary series.


As for me, the Paranormal learning curve is in full effect and I hope to put things together as quickly as possible to get on to the investigation itself.


As ever if you have any sites that you believe may be of interest to us please leave a comment and I will take a look as they could be a potential Farsight File !

What's to come ??

Right just thought I should add to my previous post, just so everyone knows where this is going to be heading. Obviously, it's kind of self-explanatory, but to begin with here is the plan...

Investigate the ruins of St. Mary's Church at Clophill Bedfordshire. This will be to the best of my ability a proper investigation with the usual gadgets once I aquire them. I will then post the results directly onto my blog for all to read.

Following Clophill I would like to venture to Minsden Chapel in Hertfordshire. This is a much older ruin and is even more off of the beaten track. It has a similar history to Clophill, with black magic and hauntings. All in all it should prove another good investigation.

I also plan to research the black magic side of this aswell, as both of these investigations have references to it.

That's pretty much it to begin with, hopefully these two locations will provide some good results.

Again, if you have any ideas on locations which may require some investigation, please don't hesitate to contact me about them. We'll make note of them and hopefully visit them in the future to add to our body of evidence.

As ever questions, comments, advice and pointers are greatly welcome.

Where to start !!

Okay so, I’m not sure exactly where this will go, but I have a little time, enjoy writing and thought I should start getting stuff out there! Basically in this day and age (sound like me Dad now), a writers first port of call is the Blog!

Enough about why I’m doing this, lets talk about the Paranormal.

The Paranormal, be it ghosts, weird stuff, bumps in the night, stuff moving or even that old building which lets admit it looks blooming scary, we all have had some kind of experience thats made us think. With the flood of TV shows on the subject like Ghost Hunters, Most Haunted and the new Docu-Drama Paranormal State hitting our screens recently its hard to know which to set the old SKY Plus to record. Ofcourse the bueaty of this subject is that it can’t really get old and probably never will. Why? Simple, we can never 100% prove either way if these annomalies exist or not.

So whats my point? A good question! Well for years I have been interested in writing and getting something published somewhere, but never really got that far. Think the closest I managed was submitting a TV Series script to a competition which didn’t pan out. However, that aside I have always enjoyed investigating stuff, even the boring research part to find out what was before it is now!! In this I have discovered a greater thirst for more factual writing, which is where I am up to now.

More recently I have been investigating the Knights Templar and the history surrounding them in the local area around Hertfordshire. However, this little investigation began its life as an interest in a ruin church in Bedfordshire, which supprising enough was apparently haunted. My current girlfriend brought the church to my attention and thus began a small quest and definate thurst for information regarding the church. St Mary’s Church at Clophill, which sits upon an erie hill top in a spooky surroundings worthy of a Stephen King novel (or even film) has numerous stories of hauntings and history. If you google it, you could be there a while trying decide which you believe and which you don’t.Apparently back in the 60’s it was the location of a Black Magic ritual, possibly a Black Mass or Necromancy. A couple of the accounts that I read indicated that there was an odd cross painted on the ruin’s wall at the time of the ritual. A cross which matched that of the Knights Templar. Hence my link and interest to the Knights. Also, just down the hill used to be a castle, the motte and bailey type, which at one point housed a knight that joined the crusades to Jerusalem.The Knights Templar side tracked me to Jerusalem and then back to Hertford, where apparently there are Templar tunnels under the town. However, after a lot of investigation this is beginning to seem less likely. However, there is a cold war bunker below Hertford town and thus tunnels of a sort!

Where has all this investigation led me? Well nowhere so far, but here!Right, if you havn’t fallen asleep yet then hopefully your still interested. I would like to write about the paranormal and locations like Clophill, even stories like Hertford Tunnels. However, I will approach them as a skeptic with the mind to disprove any paranormal activities. That way if the evidence is good then the results will be too.

This is where you, my readers come in, if you have any suggestions for places that you think could warrent investigation, drop me a comment or mail.

I plan to return to the ruin at Clophill in the near future and conduct a proper investigation, which I will write up for all to read. Following Clophill I have another ruin Church which is older and closer to Stevenage, Minsden Chapel.

So, if like me you too are interested in the Paranormal or even just knowing more about the unknown, please feel free to comment or contact me. All are welcome.