Most ghosts are mist or dust (From Gazette Series)

Most ghosts are mist or dust

STANDFIRST: Ghosts, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night are trendy at the moment. There have been countless books published on the subject in the last few years and on satellite television there are myriad programmes dealing with the paranormal. With this rise in interest in out-of-this-world experiences have sprung up a number of groups, clubs and associations whose members go ghost hunting in their spare time. Skip Walker went to talk to one such group of ghost busters based in Dursley

THE members of the Severnside Centre for Fortean Research are a mixed bunch who meet in a small flat on the outskirts of Dursley at more or less monthly intervals, if they have nothing more pressing to do. Ranging in age from 20 to 43 their daytime occupations include artist, council worker, mortgage advisor and engineer but in the evening and at weekends they have one thing in common - they are all ghost busters. The word Fortean in the name of the group comes from Charles Fort, an American who in the 1920s and 30s wrote a series of books detailing a wide range of strange, fantastic and unexplained events, including unidentified objects in the sky, ghosts, sea monsters, mystery animals and poltergeist.

Fort spent 27 years researching the paranormal in the New York Public Library and the British Museum Library but his books did not try to explain the phenomena he uncovered nor to produce his own theories as to what lay behind them. Instead he used his own scientific knowledge to attempt to persuade his readers that there were events which defied scientific explanation.

Jamie Waggett, brothers Nick and Pete Mould, Chris Howley and one other group member who does not wish to be named here for fear of embarrassing his employers, were all originally members of another paranormal group in Gloucestershire.

They left to form their own group, the Severnside Centre for Fortean Research, because they felt that the original group was too large and, more importantly, not sufficiently analytical in its researches. They, like Charles Fort, are open minded and prepared to believe that there are things on this earth that cannot be explained away by science but they are scientific in their approach and not prepared to grasp at straws just to suit their own theories.

They are not, they insist, a bunch of weirdos. "But there are a lot out there - you've only got to look at the websites. You've really got to try and remain level headed," said Nick.

They are analytical in their approach and their dream is to find positive evidence of some new paranormal phenomena which cannot be disputed, by science or artifice or any other discipline. They have been together as a group for less than a year but in that time they have been on many expeditions and undertaken a great deal of research.

"I want to believe but I want it to be normal," said Chris, who is training to be a medium.

"I'm not fussed if we find positive identification," said Jamie, whose interest is primarily in cryptzoology - the study of mysterious animals. "By being part of this adventure I've learned a lot of new theories and it gives you a different outlook on life."

And that is what the group seems to be seeking, another angle on life, something which makes their activities a little more interesting than the norm but not beyond the bounds of conventional thinking. "Sceptical" is a word that crops up frequently in conversation during the meeting, as do "allegedly" and "claimed".

"We went to this allegedly haunted site in South Wales," said Nick. "There was a fire there in the late '70s and a teenager died. People have claimed to have seen him since."

The night the group went to make their investigation of the site there was a thunderstorm. "Lightning and hailstones all around us - just like a Hammer horror movie. We decided to beat a hasty retreat," said Pete. They discovered nothing, other than their own lack of courage. This is not unusual with their investigations.

Another time they went to the former site of The Ram Inn in Wotton-under-Edge, featured on the satellite TV station Living TV and believed to be one of the most haunted sites in England. The present owner of the building is now so used to groups of ghost hunters turning up at his house that he charges a fee per head.

They took with them all their usual equipment, which includes cameras with infrared lamps (for recording in the dark), ultra-sensitive sound-recording systems, movement detection devices, laser beams and systems to record electrical activity.

These ghost-busters use a similar range of equipment to private detectives and the security services, although they have a lot less money at their disposal and their wish list of technological devices is as long as your arm.

After their visit to The Ram they were excited. "We saw an orb that night," said Nick, referring to a spiritual orb, an unexplained circle of light most usually captured on camera but not usually seen by the naked eye. "Even though we saw the orb we put it in the tray because we cannot say that it was paranormal," said Pete.

That same night, in what is called the Bishop's Room of the Ram they recorded strange sounds on one of their dictaphones - they have both digital and analogue recording devices. They played what they said was the recording from that night to me and it sounded like a cross between a groan and birdsong.

"A couple of weeks later I was there again," said Nick. "There were some planks of wood in the corner and one of them fell down even though there was no-one near it and nobody moving about. I still can't explain it."

Another time the group went to Woodchester Mansion, an unfinished Victorian home near Nympsfield, abandoned by the construction team without explanation in the mid-eighteenth century and a favourite haunt of seekers after paranormal phenomena.

"We were in one of the cellars when I felt something blow in my ear, quite strongly," said Nick. Pete said proudly that his elder brother senses other-worldly presences more strongly than most, ever since, as a 19 year old, he was in a downstairs room of a house belonging to a friend when they heard mysterious noises in a bedroom above. Upon investigation one of the bedrooms was found to have been ransacked and the handprint of a child left upon the wardrobe mirror. The friend swore that no child had ever been in the room.

Another time at Woodchester Mansion the group had again been in one of the cellars when a small stone, a pebble, had fallen at Chris Howley's feet. There had been no-one standing in the direction from which the stone appeared to have come and there were no similar pebbles anywhere in the fabric of that particular room.

Another of their investigations involved a trading estate off near Nailsworth. "We went there because what appeared to be poltergeist activity had been interrupting the work of the company," said Jamie. On this occasion the group's many cameras recorded several orbs but these they dismissed because there was a great deal of insect activity that evening and the site was close to water. Insects, attracted by water, can cause the smallest amount of light to be reflected and water also causes mist, which can swirl around in front of a camera, causing any number of what appear to be strange apparitions.

Similar sensations have been experienced by the group on sites as widespread as Hereford and Scotland but so far the members of the Sevenside Centre for Fortean Research have encountered nothing not encountered by others or that they cannot explain away by the application of logic, common sense or science.

But they are not giving up. What they dream of is to come across a new beast, a new ghostly apparition or a new haunting. Anyone who has any strange phenomena which they would like investigated, discreetly and in complete confidence, can contact the Severnside Centre for Fortean Research via their website, www.scfr.co.uk or e-mail scfr@scfr.co.uk