Okay, another Weird Stuff At Home blog, and for that I apologise. But, if this is indeed the resurgence of something, I want it documented here and now. If it blows over, great - I'll delete this so I won't feel like an overly dramatic fool. As I speak (well, write) the extractor fan in the kitchen has just come on. I am in the living room, where up until this point, was quite merrily slobbing-it-up upon the sofa watching the ever-fabulous Yellowstone.
Since the last two weeks before I left the prison as staff, things became heightened. The hearing things in the moment, the seeing movement in B Wing, my book hurling itself off the side in Visits. And now, when strange and mischievous activity at home has become a distant memory (the last things to really stick in my mind were March and April of this year were the skewer and chisel incidents respectively).
Yet several things have happened over the past week and a bit that have piqued my suspicions that perhaps an element of my uninvited guest, is back. Not in a fully-fledged manner I hasten thankfully to add, but a whisper, a little, "Hi, hope you haven't forgotten me ;) " sort of message.
At the weekend just gone I was thrilled to be able to meet up with my 'ghost buddies' Chris and Dave. Both of these fellas are absolutegents, and good friends whom I met at Shepton years ago. Dave Cable is the genius who wrote the book From The Inside, about the earlier history of the prison. He is one of the loveliest humans I have ever come across, with a brain as mighty as the universe itself, and with all the humility that 99% of other people lack. Plus he's the most eclectic dresser I've had the pleasure of meeting too, like a colourful and crazy butterfly.
I haven't really been able to meet either of these fellas and talk properly since I've been staff at Shepton as I continually had to be on point, but now... it's like the old days! EVP captures are on the increase, and I'm beginning to feel a little like my old self now, now that the sleeping routine is flattening out a tad.
Dave has so many fingers in so many pies that I don't believe there can be a creature with as many digits in all of creation. Nor that many pies either. Computer scientist, photographer, author, historian, parapsychologist, you name it, Dave IS all of these things. He regularly updates on social media about his work and findings which are are so in dept, that they are undoubtedly requiring an insane level of research.
This is where the story really starts... Dave recently recounted an incident at The Ancient Ram Inn (yep, that one) after which he and those present began to experience 'strange things'. This was a while ago. However, after a Ouija session last weekend at the final Night Behind Bars event at the prison, he was conducting an experiment with strangers. The info' coming through was impossible to have been pre-empted by those present, and when interest coming from 'the board' was directed at a certain person, they were asked to remove their fingers from the planchette to negate the possibility of influence. Communication continued with startling accuracy. No yes/no questions, actual full-on spelling out, which if you're a board user, you'll know is quite rare. Certainly verifiable facts.
The entity, if that's what it was (and in this case I'd have to say yes, it was) rapidly moving around the board, giving out personal information for each participant, including some incredibly personal details including car problems, tech' issues at home, and information about a family death. When it came to Dave, he removed his hand, and stood back. The planchette spelled out, "ANCIENT RAM INN", not just once, but several times. And then to Dave's horror, "DID YOU MISS ME?"
If you've read my other polt' blogs, about the things that happened at my home in Ilchester 2017-2022, you'll be aware of my book recommendation by Darren Ritson. He has written many publications on hauntings, but his latest and for myself, most interesting, is - Poltergeist Parallels and Contagion.
Worry not, I'm not going to go into it all again because I've done so before. Suffice to say, that it deals with the possibility that polt' experiences bleed from one focus, to the friends and family thereof. Whilst I was in the thick of my non-human companion's ferocity, the highest wave of which came in the summer of 2019, my family began to experience phenomena at home too - nearly 200 miles away.
I have recounted my friend Merrick's encounter with 'it' whilst attempting to listen to my EVPs via his laptop and dongle (blog entry, Dongle Disaster!), and as I was writing about this very incident two years ago, recounting how a light bulb blew and shattered over his head as he plugged in the dongle, only for it to fly out across the room, the bulb in the living room under my writing room suddenly exploded like a bomb. Thing was, I don't even think the light was on.
I have told you of my friend Julian, how we were chatting about my polt' activity, and how he had that week experienced a tap in his kitchen coming on full force whilst he and his wife Sian were in the other room. Guess what happened that night?! Yes, Jack and I were upstairs doing our teeth when we heard this almighty hissing. I ran downstairs to find the hot tap in the kitchen on full, and steaming.
See what I mean?! Has Dave's unwanted friendly ethereal buddy not only engaged with him again, but reignited my own? Has being in Dave's charged presence (and in that of the prison) rekindled something? Is it indeed the case that a poltergeist, whatever it or they are, of one mind, one entity, splintering off and able to reach out as and when they feel? Like us having fish in a tank, we can reach in or bang on the glass whenever we so desire. Is it the same in whatever dimension these beings/this being hails from? So many questions!
I have yet to tell you what exactly happened to prompt this latest blog, so here we go...
Over the past week I have felt distinctly uneasy at home, mainly at night. I have felt an unprecedented sense of depression, a lonely apathy that I've had for decades but that sometimes pops its ugly head up, and stays for no reason. I don't know why but getting through the day and night can often feel like trying to breathe under a fat, hot pillow. It's not about feeling sad - it's a lack of feeling at all. I have a wonderful husband, a blessed life right now. Why am I like this? Why now, again?
This bout has lasted about two months. A darkness so melancholic that I've been getting up in the morning and trying to achieve something, but with a 'what's the point?' sigh, given up. This is only the third day in the past thirty that I've not gone back to bed to stare at the wall. This darkness, this blanket heaviness of spirit, coincided with the increase in activity at the prison, and I did wonder if it had anything to do with it. Had I had something latch on? The last three days however, I've felt more proactive, and Jack's due home. Tonight actually. So no naps, great weather, and keeping active and busy. But...
Sometimes the place takes on a menacing feel, and the last five nights have been bad. I've felt a presence in the bedroom, and three nights back whilst lying wide awake staring at the LED tree I have on throughout the night, a ball of black slowly moved horizontally across the room. I thought at first that it was a blue bottle, but there was no sound, and the thing suddenly went up vertically and disappeared. Disturbed, but not really letting myself think about it too much, I got up to go to the loo. I turned back as I got to the door to see a white sheen glide across our headboard left to right. I thought, maybe it was light reflecting off the moving fan as it rotated, and so I watched for several rotations before seeing nothing, and discounted it. The main light stayed on the rest of that night.
The night before last I was watching TV with Bea, the neighbour's cat. It was dark and around 10pm, when I saw movement across the room but no physical reason for it. Like a rippling, motion. It was similar to the four rippling movements I detected at the prison several weeks ago outside B1,21 and 22. I began to consider that I may have an eye condition, but it's not occurred before, or since.
That is, until last night. I'd been listening to Danny Robins' latest podcase The Witch Farm, and the experts were discussing electrical surges in haunt cases. As I sat there, suddenly something came whizzing close to my face from the back of the room as I lay on the sofa. I jumped, and swore. My heart raced. Then, I noticed something. Our conservatory that had been in darkness, was now glowing green. I got up much to Bea's disgust, and investigated. The cross trainer machine that stands in the corner was on! It hadn't been on since June, was still plugged in but off at the wall - since the marvellous news about the energy crisis any unused socket is switched off. The machine itself does not have an On/Off switch - you simply plug it in and go, then un-switch and unplug. Yet this thing had been switched on at the wall - for the first time in four months. And, it hadn't been on half an hour earlier when I'd locked the back door!
Was this an act of contagion? The true story that Danny was telling about the Welsh haunting in 1989, fuelling 'my' entity to rock things up a little? Combining with perhaps Dave's renewed contact with his own invisible stalker?
Whatever these events are, I shall keep track and make careful note.
Over and out for now - I have to get the house ready for guests... I wonder what my friend will make of them.
And, just in case you missed it, my extractor fan has just come on in the kitchen. Coincidence?