Last weekend I went to the (outrageously pretty) lower Cotswolds town of Bradford-on-Avon, to a ghostly-goings-on convention called PARAMEET 2024.
I have a skeptic's interest, with a few “experiences” of my own, which I remain unconvinced about so far. But I'm open to hearing from researchers into what many now call “the Phenomena".
It was held in a country house/hotel a mile or so north of the town. The organisers are from a Paranormal research centre in Hinckely, Leicestershire. This was their first ever convention “down South". It was over the weekend, with some attendees staying at the hotel and going on ghost walks in the evenings.
I went on the Saturday, to see a presentation by Emma, of Weird Wiltshire, on the strange sightings around Stonehenge and Avebury. If you live in the South West of England, a lot of the local legends and general spookiness might already be known to you.
But if you want to know more, I highly recommend Emma's website:
https://weird-wiltshire.co.uk/
The hall was packed with people selling what I can only describe as Woo-Woo tat.
Plastic witchy emblems, spell kits, “ghost-detectors”, spiritual readings (conducted right there, surrounded by crowds and constant noise, really)? And the inevitable T-shirts and other merch promoting the organisers.
So far so predictable. I enjoyed Emma's talk very much, which is why I was there.
But it was the second speaker, one of the founders of the Hinckley research centre, with a talk about the “manifestations” she claims to detect in their own building, which really made me feel uncomfortable. And which made me decide not to stay for the rest of the day or the weekend.
Not because the subject matter unnerved me, but because, as I glanced round the room, I wondered if I was the only sane person there.
At the start of the day, we were asked if we were “a skeptic, a believer, or on the fence". I really wanted to stick my hand up as “skeptic", but could see I would the only one, so I cravenly opted for “on the fence” with a handful of others.
But in the presentation on the manifestations, illustrated by the psychic's own drawings of what she says she sees, it was clear that everyone else in the room was a “believer”.
Their centre is open to the public for tours, and for paranormal investigation teams.
It includes a “haunted museum”, of haunted or cursed items, like dolls. They’d brought a display of some of these ugly looking things with them, and people were taking selfies in front of them.
Harmless fun - unless that sort of thing creeps you out.
Where I really felt “Oh no, this much Woo-Woo is too much for me", is when she told us how they “help” deeply disturbed people who make appointments with them.
Some of their customers - we were not told how much they pay - sound like they suffer with actual mental illnesses. The psychic tells them they have negative entities or spirits hanging on them, and conducts healing sessions. Again, it was unclear how much this costs them, or how many they are told they need.
As an artist, my “woo-woo" detector went off when she showed us her drawings of these “attachments”
For a start, they were all humanoid-types, some frog or fish like, but with heads, eyes, arms and hands. They were drawn hanging round people's necks or growing out of them, or attached by a cord. (Some apparently just sit around in corners in the building, and have been given cutesy names).
They all looked similar, which is natural when any artist has one style they stick to. (As a book illustrator, I draw in many styles, to my customer's specifications).
One man in the audience did ask a question about why they all seemed to be in the same position on people's bodies. But apart from him, the whole room was nodding along as if this was all perfectly normal.
No one asked why the “manifestations” were all humanoid type creatures. My answer as an artist: because her own imagination cannot depict them any other way, and she knows that will appeal to the customers more than, say, a drawing of a grey mist in the corner.
Their answer might be “because these manifestations are attracted to humans, so this is the form they adopt” or, “this is exactly what I see, there is an invisible world of creatures and entities surrounding us all the tine".
No one asked why these psychics feel it's ok to tell clients, who may well have undiagnosed mental illnesses, that they have an invisible creature clinging to their back, sucking on their energy! I can't imagine anything more disturbing to an already disordered mind.
I'm not in the witchy-spells-incense-incantations camp when it comes to Woo-Woo. I DO believe, howeve, that people see and experience all kinds of things, and explain them in all kinds of ways.
That has been documented throughout history. And some people who claimed to have these visions were called shamans, or saints. Nowadays, they sell books and merch, and are on the talk-show circuit. (Which today means podcasts and YouTube channels).
Sometimes these experiences happen at ancient sites which naturally have an “atmosphere”. They are marketed to tourists for precisely that purpose. Wiltshire and Somerset are full of standing stones that were originally cursed by a witch, move around so you can't count them, or wobble down to the river at midnight!
I prefer to seek out the skeptical researchers, who are open to evolving their own attitudes over time. Diana Pasulka, author of “American Cosmic" is definitely in that category.
And another of the Speakers at PARAMEET, Hypnotist Paul Goddard, has recently put out what I think is an extremely brave statement about his own field, “past-life regression”. I've had one of these sessions with him, and wasn't convinced it was proof of a past-life. I think it is simply a variation of the healing process of hypnotism.
Here's his video, which I think any believer should watch, “Is Reincarnation real"? :
So I'm afraid the Woo-Woo convention didn't do it for me!
But I will still be doing my own explorations to the mysterious corners of the West Country, with an open mind. But not, I hope, so open that an invisible malignant entity like a big humanoid-frog hops in!