Spirits and things spooky ...

Do you ever wonder in odd, idle moments about things ethereal, intangible, the afterlife and if there is such a thing?  I suppose that a number of folk may in all sorts of ways irrespective of religious beliefs.

For a long while I have occasionally thought about such things, perhaps more so in latter years.  There have been a number of odd events in my life for which there are no reasonable explanations, I am one of those people who need plausible explanations for things.  This questioning attitude became even ever more common after my not so distant days at Uni where I was taught to challenge why things are the way that they are.  Not in any revolutionary sense but just as a way of better understanding things around me in everyday life and beyond.  What I am saying, I suppose, is not to accept things blindly but to reach for the core truths, the fundamentals if you like. 

In nearly all matters an answer may be found, how or why something works not only in the mechanical or electrical sense but government, relationships, all manner of things. This has led me in many directions over the years, one such is what happens to us after death.  Sorry to use the 'D' word as in many circles it is considered improper or too near the truth, some preferring ' passed on' or 'passed over' and many other euphemisms but dying is what we all inevitably do!



Something very odd happened to me in my mid-teens, more than odd in fact.  Picture the scene, Halloween Eve around eight o'clock, dark, chilly, slightly misty with few people about. I was cycling along Bell Lane, Enfield near Albany Park School to see my girlfriend as I did most evenings taking the same route.  Pedalling along happily I gradually became aware that things were not the same as usual.  A large shape was gradually forming before me on my side of the road.  As it grew closer and larger yet ever more distinct I could make out that it was an old style coach pulled by four horses with the driver atop his box. 

As it drew ever nearer I realised that it appeared to be about a foot or so above the road and that the apparition was making noise whatsoever.  Just as I thought I was about to be run down I rode between the two pairs of horses, the driver on his box seemed not to have noticed me continuing to urge the team on. The front of the coach passed me and I had fleeting glimpses of passengers in what might have been Georgian style dress inside the passenger compartment.  Just as suddenly as this experience began it was then over.  I stopped and turned to look behind me in the direction the coach was travelling  –  there was nothing to see and no evidence except in my mind that anything untoward had happened.

Subsequent research with the help of a close friend who was the editor of our local newspaper, the Enfield Gazette, shed some light on historical facts.  The coach was travelling on a west to east route and that there had indeed been a regular stage route there in the 18th and early 19th centuries to Colchester and Harwich. The route locally was via Hoe Lane and then into Bell Lane towards the River Lea where there was a fording point. Within a few weeks of this event we discovered that a small number of readers had also shared the same experience, not in the exact same location but generally along the Hoe Lane/Bell Lane route.

As you may imagine I was somewhat confused by this encounter and sought answers, information, anything that might help me rationalise or understand what I know that I had seen. At the time I did not find any satisfactory explanation as to what had happened or why.

Let's move on ten years or so.  At the time I was a London Transport bus inspector, you know the bloke, stands on street corners all day with a clip board in hand watching the totty pass by.  It was on a quiet, Monday autumn evening towards midnight that I was standing in my little box near the top of Barnet Hill.  There were no buses on the stand, I was totally alone.  Whilst writing the day's events in the log book I thought that I felt a light double tap on my left shoulder. Turning to see who was there I was a little surprised to find nobody there. Putting it down to imagination I ignored it.  Some twenty minutes later there was a further tap on my shoulder, yet again I was completely alone. Nothing further happened for several years.

One night again I was alone at work this time in the traffic office of an East London bus garage.  There was I  secure in the knowledge that there was nobody else in the office apart from myself, all the doors were locked and windows shut when suddenly I sensed that I was not alone.  I looked round, nobody behind me so I checked the office and found nothing out of the ordinary.  By now I was certain that I was not alone but there was nothing that showed otherwise, it was just a feeling, that’s all.  I was not frightened nor even perturbed, in fact I felt quite calm and reassured by it.

These were the first  occasions that anything like this had happened to me.  Such things have recurred many times since, not only in places where I have been alone but in public, busy places too.  Determined to discover what might be happening I spoke to a close friend in confidence whom I knew had experienced some similar things.  She suggested that I speak with a trusted friend, which I did a few weeks later ...


Perhaps more to follow shortly ...