Home wrecked by “ghost”
Society to hold inquiry.
The story of a Manchester man who was almost ruined by a ghost, which wrecked his home, terrified the occupants, and caused material damage amounting to £200 will be related by Mr J. Cuming Walters, president of the newly-formed Manchester Centre for Psychic Research at the inaugural meeting on May 17. He will tell the story as an illustration of the phenomena which await investigation in the Manchester area.
“Lancashire,” said Mr Walters, “is probably the richest field for psychic investigation in the country .It literally ‘reeks’ with ghost stories. Many of them, of course, are mere stories, but on the other hand there are scores of so-called haunted houses in Manchester alone. The general public do not realise how common ‘ghostly’ happenings are. People are naturally averse to the publicity which usually follows the disclosing of a haunting, if only for the fact that it affects the value of the property.
“The new centre will exercise the utmost caution in carrying out its work. It will respect the confidence of the people who seek its help, and I believe we shall be able to ease the minds of a good many people.”
Mr Walters illustrated the potential usefulness of such a society by referring the recent activities of a poltergeist in the Levenshulme district. “A poltergeist,” he explained,”can only be described as a mad or a lunatic spirit. They can cause terrible distress and do considerable damage. The Levenshulme poltergeist literally wrecked a home. Doors were opened and closed; taps were wrenched off the bath, causing water to pour down the walls; gas brackets were torn from the wall so that gas escaped; articles of furniture were thrown about and turned upside down, and things were even flung through the window into the garden. The dreadful activities of the poltergeist in that home did damage mounting to £200. The people in the house were terrified.
“A little group of people investigated that case, and managed to ‘lay the ghost.’ They were convinced that a supernatural agent was at work. They eventually decided that the poltergeist was using the physical force of some person in the vicinity, and they were able to suggest a line of action which put a stop to the spirit’s activities once and for all. Such occurrences are not as rare as some people believe,” he added. “Another case has been brought to our notice, and is to be investigated.”
Mr Walters emphasised that the new society has no connection whatever with the spiritualist movement. It comprises doctors, lawyers, and professional men who intend to make a strict scientific inquiry into all kinds of supernatural phenomena which are brought to their notice. They will pay personal visits to haunted houses, seeking an explanation. They will subject mediums to every test that ingenuity can devise. They will make a close study into hypnotism and telepathy, “preserving,” said Mr Walters, “an open and unbiassed mind.”
Three of the leading mediums in the country have been invited by the new society to visit Manchester to undergo tests of a most stringent character. The membership of the new society already stands at 80, while there is a waiting list of double that number. “Agnostics,” said Mr Walters, “are just as welcome as anyone else, for we want to be watched ourselves so that there c an be no suspicion of partiality. We shall be gald to hear, from any membe rof the general public, of curious happenings for which there seems to be no rational explanation.”
Dundee Evening Telegraph, 3rd May 1933.