Submission Oct 2008, Version 1.0
Investigation at a Black Country Church, September
2008
By Peter Drake
The investigation took place at a Black Country church with medieval origins. Its long, troubled history and reports of supernatural activity attracted the attention of the WOLF group - standing for ‘World Oneric Life Force’ – which decided that the atmospheric building was ready for exploration.
I was lucky enough to be invited along, accompanying the core members of the WOLF team and a select number of associate members.
The darkening nights and higher levels of electro-magnetic activity in the local weather systems offered the prospect of an eventful evening.
On passing the threshold there was the expected musty smell, though strongly-tinged with incense. Inside it was quiet and gloomy. Candles were sprinkled across the stalls and statues, the flickering lights creating shadows that seemed to shift.
The church design and layout was unusual; and though for reasons of confidentiality I cannot go into details, I can say that it differed from what I am familiar with.
“I tasted blood in my mouth”
On the initial tour of the site we were shown the vestry. This used to be part of the ancient churchyard. I did not feel anything unusual, and it seemed quite ordinary. However, some members of the group with psychic sensitivity reported feeling very strange while in the room; one person said they felt like they were interrupting a meeting, perhaps of some secret society; another tasted blood in their mouth.
From an appraisal of the vestry I could see WOLF’s high professional standards in action: two old-fashioned coins as trigger objects were placed on a table, which it was hoped mischievous spirits would move; a Dictaphone was left recording; and an infra-red camera was on open display recording the room and doorway for activity, but with another camera also recording from a secret location in the room, to prevent deceptions. There was no way anyone could cheat.
Later when we moved past the stalls by the altar, I was aware of a low, strange sound, like many whispering voices. Maybe it was the heavy atmosphere getting to me, or an echo – there were many echoes in this church – but I didn’t hear it again.
I spoke to Liz, an associate member, and she told me that by the altar she had felt a sudden, overpowering need to prostrate herself. Earlier she had sensed something at the top of stairs as we were shown the way to the church tower.
“The motion detector was going crazy…”
The investigators split into three teams. I was with Gemma Taylor and Vanessa Penny, with whom I had previously worked at an investigation in Woodchester Mansion. We completed base readings. It was around 10:35pm.
We begin to explore the stalls to the left of the church. Motion detection equipment had been set-up on a particular stall, and Gemma checked that it was working correctly. We moved down the aisle. I was at the back, looking round the dark panorama and at a statue of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by candles…
Suddenly there was an explosion of noise behind us. Everyone jumped. The motion detector was going crazy. Things had been so quiet, but that peacefulness was shattered. We could see nothing behind us that might have set off the detector. There was no rational explanation, other than it had been set-off by the test.
We moved down the aisle and sat in the corner by a smaller altar. It was dark but not too cold. Gemma and Vanessa started calling out to any spirits that were present, asking them to show themselves.
They tried pendulum dowsing. This involved holding a pendulum and calling out to spirits, asking them to move the pendulum in response to questions; if they wanted the spirits to spell something out, they called out letters of the alphabet until the pendulum’s violent motion confirmed this was the correct one; and this continued until a word had been spelt out.
In this way they discovered the identity of a spirit called Henry, who seemed to communicate that he was a “reverend” from the 1730’s, and was now protecting people in the church – including us.
I later learned that the other teams had made contact with other vicars through this same kind of dowsing in the church. This was not unexpected – we were in a church after all – though I believe that non-clerical entities also made themselves known.
We took turns at sitting in a chair near this corner. The church guide later told us that the chair dated from the 16th century, that it had belonged to one of the first vicars of the church and had been associated with previous paranormal activity. I admit that I felt more comfortable in the chair, being reminded of a teacher sitting at a school assembly, looking across stalls/seats. However, I cannot say that I felt very different sitting there, or sensed anything unusual, which is what I think I was expected of me. I wondered if I was being tested for susceptibility to suggestion.
The candles were now going out one by one, and the gloom was growing.
“We heard footsteps racing ahead of us…”
There were odd reports from the vicinity of a pulpit: Vanessa had a sense of marching soldiers, and a tall man; while Gemma began to feel strange and uneasy after standing there. A hymn book from the pulpit was also scanned with an EMF meter and gave unusually high readings. What made it more peculiar around an hour later, was a photograph that Simone Taylor – co-founder of WOLF - had taken of a large light anomaly – an ‘orb’ – which she could not explain. It seemed to be hovering over the pulpit at exactly the place where Gemma had stood.
Our group investigated another part of the church which was disused and seemed dangerous, with debris and layers of dust. It was much darker due to lack of illumination, so we relied on torches.
Even as we approached the area, Gemma and I thought we heard footsteps racing ahead of us. It could have been echoes of our own footsteps or those of other groups. I’m not sure. Anyone who has been in this kind of environment will understand how little things can be exaggerated by the excessive darkness and silence, which can lead to sensory deprivation, and the effects of tiredness.
I saw a few things from the corner of my eye that almost startled me. After straining my eyes to focus on what seemed a strange white blob of a head at some fair distance from me, I reasoned that it was only a white book on an altar, which I confirmed later.
When a motion detector across from us went off twice, I wondered what was happening. It was in this direction that Gemma thought she saw red dots through the murk, but in hindsight it could have been from the motion detector’s battery indicator, rather than anything supernatural. On the occasions that it went off, there was nobody there. The church guide suggested it was ‘kids’ playing, and I don’t think he meant anything tangible.
“A focal point for some unknown entity…”
We returned to our original site for investigation - the stalls where the motion detector had earlier come alive to noisy effect. The other WOLF investigators were busy. There was pendulum dowsing, which seemed to be on the same spot as the motion detector. People seemed to sense that these stalls were a focal point for some unknown entity.
I heard some reference to a nearby stained glass window, which supposedly contained freemasonry or pagan symbols – and I noticed that the far-off statue of the Virgin Mary cast a shadow on the wall in this same spot. This was the statue that caught my attention just before the motion detector went mad.
Later on, I attempted to find a trigger object (in this case a toy bear) using dowsing rods - a typical investigative technique. Everyone has heard of dowsing for water, though probably not for bears. I searched along the stalls, feeling an occasional little tug of the dowsing rods (perhaps they were just heavy, or I imagined it?) but I had absolutely no luck. Almost everyone else managed to find the bear. My confidence wasn’t damaged too much – I don’t see myself as a powerful psychic anyway, I’m too sceptical.
The night was now getting very late, and the investigation began to wind down. The atmosphere had gone flat – little wonder, as people were tired. I listened to a little of what other people had experienced – one woman had heard something on the stairs shout “Get out!” and others had heard high-pitched noises, some sort of vibrations that left them with heavy heads.
Perhaps I didn’t feel entirely convinced that any paranormal power was at work – it would probably have taken a full-blown manifestation to persuade me otherwise, which is asking a lot. I cannot fight my sceptical nature, though I am willing to contemplate the possibility of ghosts and the supernatural.
In any case, I went away from this Black Country church feeling that my imagination would be richer for the experience; and that cannot be a bad thing.
