A talk on evidence for survival from hauntings and apparitions research, given for the Forever Family Foundation, April 5th, 2017. By Nancy L. Zingrone, PhD.

1. Is There Anybody in There?
EVIDENCE FOR SURVIVAL FROM HAUNTINGS
AND APPARITIONS RESEARCH
FOREVER FAMILY FOUNDATION
APRIL 5TH, 2017

2. The Talk:
• Some Problems
• In This Talk
• Differing Agendas
• Some Favorite Sources
• Edge Hill
• The Cheltenham Ghost
• A Daughter’s Experience of Her Father
• What Constitutes Communication?
• What the Scientist Wants

3. Some Problems:
• The astonishing cases convince us but they raise the boggle
threshold for neutral folk, scientific parapsychologists, and of
course skeptics: It’s just too good to be true, too much like
fiction.
• Evidence from “quieter” cases is easier for scientists and
scholars to take in and ponder (forget skeptics …)
• But can the evidence, even if it is high quality, be convincing
without personal experience?
• Or do we want to set aside our intellects, give up the quest for
scientific knowledge if we can draw personal meaning from
uninvestigated experience?

4. Differing Agendas
For the experiencer
• Seeing / hearing
• Validating through other
stories
• Validating through
research
• Validating through psychic
testimony or mediumship
• Incorporating the
experience into a spiritual
understanding
For the scientist
• Detailed accounts
• Corroborated across
experiencers
• Corroborated across sources
and time
• Coherent picture
• Goodness of fit to theory
• Incorporating the evidence
into our understanding of
the natural world and our
place in it

5. First, some favorite sources …

6. 2010, Cambridge University Press
1984, Prometheus Press
1848, T.C. Newby
Covers retrieved from amazon.com
2002, John Murray

7. 2002, Parapsychology Foundation
2005, Atriad
Covers retrieved from amazon.com
1963, University Books
1982, Heinemann

8. The Battle of Edge Hill

9. The Battle of Edgehill, October 23rd, 1642
First Battle of the English Civil War (1642-1651)
Royalists loyal to Charles I vs Parliamentarians under
the Earl of Essex, near the Edge Hill and Kineton,
southern Warwickshire
Retrieved from heritage-history.com

11. Some details …
The Battle
• A three hour battle, afternoon
into evening
• 14,000 men on both sides,
fought through the day, nobody
won, bodies of 2000-3000 men
from both sides left on the field
• Royalists forces severely reduced
during the fight, blocked by
Parliamentarians on their retreat
back to London
The War
• Led by Cromwell, the
Parliamentarians fought to
overthrow the monarchy and
expand the rights of common
man
• King Charles was captured and
beheaded in 1649
• Oliver Cromwell established his
government in 1651
• Cromwell died in 1658
• Charles II was invited back in
1660

12. The Ghostly Battle …
• First ghostly re-enactment, started
after midnight, December 25th,
1642 and continued on four
successive Saturday/Sunday nights
• Ghostly battle fought for over 3
hours each time in the sky above
the battlefield
• Living and dead individuals visible
enough to be identified, horses,
dogs, equipment etc., sounds
• Witness by local shepherds and
laborers at first, then by local vicar
Samuel Marshall, local justice of
the peace, William Wood and
others
• Two pamphlets published by the
end of January 1643 with slightly
differing stories
• A commission was sent from King
Charles to investigate and they:
• Witnessed the battle play out
seemingly in full twice
• Recognized both dead and living
comrades in arms
(From Cornell, 2002, pp. 129-131)

13. The Ghostly Battle …
• Prince Rupert, General of Horse
for the Royalists was recognized
in the ghostly battle
• Sir Edmund Varney, the Royal
Standard Bearer, was also
recognized
• Both Rupert and Varney
perished
• 20th century investigation
identified the vicar as from a
neighboring village, but no
evidence of the justice of the
peace found
• The three named commission
members were identified as
having lived in the time, having
been Royalists and of a station as
to have been the commissioners
sent by the King
• But:
• Not mentioned in the writings of
a local antiquarian who wrote
about the area and battle in 1891
• No commission mentioned in the
records of Charles I
• Pamphlets conflicted in details of
apparitions and dates
(From McCue and Gauld, 2005)

14. Retrieved from heritage-history.com
What do we do with this …
• Staggering to see
• But how could it include living and
dead …
• Conflicting reports … one pamphlet
said the soldiers thundered across
the ground on the way to the battle,
then disappeared into the earth, only
to appear in the battle in progress in
the air,
• Varney said to haunt the field alone,
and his home until modern times
• But evidence?

15. The Cheltenham Ghost

16. The Cheltenham Ghost
Retrieved from art.com
SPR Researcher
Andrew MacKenzie
Retrieved from ufopsi.com

17. Leaders of the Society for Psychical Research
Henry Sidgwick
(1838-1900)
Eleanor
Sidgwick
(1845-1936)
F. W. H. Myers
(1843-1901)
Edmund Gurney
(1847-1888)

18. From the Proceedings of the SPR
Experiments
Richet, C. (1889). Further experiments in hypnotic lucidity or clairvoyance.
Theory/Concepts
Sidgwick, H. (1889). The canons of evidence in psychical research.
Reports, Analysis, and Discussions of Many Cases
Sidgwick, Mrs. H. (1885). Notes on the evidence, collected by the Society, for phantasms
of the dead.
Report of a Single Case
Marillier, L. (1891) Apparitions of the Virgin in Dordogne.
Morton, R.C. (1892) Report of a haunted house.
Reports of Séances
Hodgson, R. (1892). A record of observations of certain phenomena of trance.
Methodological Discussions
Edgeworth, F.Y. (1885) The calculus of probability applied to psychical research.

19. SPR Method …
• Gather detail
• Corroborate detail through person accounts, individual witnesses,
written records, especially history and public records
• Analysis the consistency of the tale, the identification of the
person(s) represented by the apparitions
• Draw conservative conclusions
• Attempt to develop theory to account for how, why and when

20. Morton, R.C. (1892)
Report of a haunted house.
Rosina Clara Despard (1863-1930)
• Moved in when she was 19
• Sightings from 1884 through 1886
• Medical student inspired by Frederic
Myers to write up her investigationSt. Anne’s — “Garden
Reach” — Cheltenham
Retrieved from
ghostsofbritain.com
(From MacKenzie, 1982)

21. Primary Facts
• Seen or heard by 20 people
• Seen inside and outside
• Seen in “succession”
• Reported as:
• A nun
• An intruder
• A member of the household
• Seen in daylight / heard at night
• Frequent collective sightings
• Seen by dogs but not cats or horses
(From MacKenzie, 1982)

22. Investigation by Despard
• Covered four years of experiences
• Testimony taken
• Attempted identification
• Detailed maps of movements
• Failed at photographic evidence
• Failed attempts to communicate
• Attempts to test her “materiality”
• Compilation of the history of the
house
(From MacKenzie, 1982)

23. (From Morton, 1892)

24. Principle Characteristics
• Always in “widow’s weeds”
• Face usually covered with
handkerchief
• Often heard weeping
• Often seen weeping
• Customary path inside and outside
of the house
(From Morton, 1892)

25. • House built in 1860
• Owned by an “Anglo Indian”, Mr. Henry
Swinhoe
• First wife died, Mr. S became alcoholic
• Married second wife, Imogen Swinhoe,
stormy relationship, she became
alcoholic
• They separated, she went to live
elsewhere, Henry Swinhoe died in the
house in 1876, Imogen died in 1878,
brought back and buried near by
• Second owner died in the house, no
experiences but gardener saw ghost
within a month of Imogen’s death
Before Despards …
(From Morton, 1892)

26. • Despards in the house from 1882-1893
• Empty from 1893-1898
• Boy’s School 1898-1907
• Empty from 1907 to 1910
• 1910 to 1970s:
• Convent
• School for Nannies
• Catholic Diocesan House
• Empty from 1970 to 1973
• Apartment building from 1973
After the Despards …
(From MacKenzie, 1982)

27. • Nothing reported from 1907 to the present in
Garden Reach but ….
• Persistent reports of ghost in the
neighborhood from 1870 to the present
• From 1958-1961 in a hotel across the street,
reports of a female ghost in “widow’s weeds”
fading from the feet up
• 1933 and during WWII, reported in Weston
House, ½ mile from Garden Reach
• 1960s through 1979, reports from Doctors’
office in Weston House of being watched,
footsteps, etc.
The Neighborhood …
(From MacKenzie, 1982)

28. And more recently …
From 1970s through 1991:
• Sightings in the roads, and buildings in the neighborhood of St. Anne’s
• Common features: woman in black, most often with a handkerchief
over her face, most recent sightings accompanied by a small boy in
Victorian dress
• To a Cheltenham Psychic Group’s account of a visit using a medium,
who was contacted by an unhappy spirit living in St. Anne’s, who
wouldn’t leave the area because “they” wouldn’t let her drink on the
other side
• MacKenzie contacted Violet Rhodes James, a surviving grand-daughter
of Rosina Despard’s father, and reiterated the story that Swinhoe
introduced drink to her husband
(From MacKenzie, 1997)

29. The SPR Method in Despard’s report
• Detailed observations including feelings of witnesses
(predominantly a sense of loss of power to the ghost)
• Attempts to determine the “reality” of the experiences
• Attempts to intervene
• Gathering of observations from others, including letters of
corroboration in the report
• Drawing conservative conclusions on the meaning of the sightings
• Set up an experiment to see if they could identify photos from life
of the ghost, the photo of Imogen’s sister was chosen
• And seeking communication
(From Morton, 1892)

30. The SPR Method in Mackenzie’s reports
• Attempts to determine the “reality” of the experiences
• Gathering of observations from others, including letters of
corroboration in the report
• Willingness to investigate sighting from the neighborhood that
have similar characteristics
• Drawing conservative conclusions on the meaning of the sightings
• Reporting problems with the evidence – the level of story, the
1990/1991 percipient having read the 1982 book
• Advising caution but continued interest in any future sighting
(From MacKenzie, 1982 and 1997)
But evidence?

31. A family experience …

33. Prompted by her family’s surprising, profound experiences
around the death of her father and her sister, reporter
Patricia Pearson sets out on an open-minded inquiry, a rare
journalistic investigation of Nearing Death Awareness, which
Anne Rice praises as “substantive, eloquent, and
worthwhile.” Opening Heaven’s Door offers deeply affecting
stories of messages from the dying and the dead in a
fascinating work of investigative journalism, pointing to new
scientific explanations that give these luminous moments
the importance felt by those who experience them. Pearson
also delves into out-of-body and near-death experiences,
examining stories and research to make sense of these
related but distinct categories.
Opening Heaven’s Door: What The Dying are
Trying to say about Where They are Going

34. The experience …
• Patricia’s father, 80-years old but well dies in
his sleep
• Her sister for several hours that night,
suffering from metastatic breast cancer, not
knowing he had died, felt someone cup her
head with their hands, and was bathed in joy
and peace
• Patricia’s sister wrote about the experience,
told her son about it before they were notified
that her father had died in his sleep
• But she and the family came to believe that
their father had died to pave the way
(From Pearson, 2015)

35. What constitutes communication?

36. Why communication? …
Theoretical models for apparitions/hauntings in general:
• Telepathic Hallucinations carrying information but not indicative of survival
or an afterlife
• Sensitivity to residue of past emotional actions or repetitive actions
• Some semblance of consciousness operating in a dream-link way in and
around a location
• Misperceptions / Experiences tempered by fantasy, mythology, tales of
previous encounters
• Some kind of “timeslip”
• Fraud / Hallucinatory experiences caused by mental illness

37. “Obvious Communication” of a less dramatic kind …
Awareness of the experiencer indicated by an action, or
movement such as
• Pointing, Touch
• Speech, Sounds
• Expression of emotion related to the experiencer
• Rattling doors as if to enter
• Bending closer to get a look
• Responsive raps or other sounds

38. How obvious is it? …
• The testimony of a single psychic or medium
• What pops into the heads of the investigators
• Electronic voice,
• Behaviors of animals
• Feelings of foreboding
• History of site falling into disuse or standing empty
• Testimony of visitors who know the stories, have seen
the film, read the book …

39. Well, maybe yes or maybe no …
• Is one recorded incident of what looks like
responsiveness enough to assume the case
indicates a presence?
• Are there physical variables in the environment
that inspire misperception, false memories, or
hallucination?
• If detail is provided or verified by mediums on
site or after the fact, is that enough to say
there’s communication and not ESP?
• Does the verification process uncover
impossibilities in the original details of the
experiencers’ report?

40. What the scientist wants …

41. Convergent evidence is always better …
• Cases of similar structure, consistency of content over multiple
observers who can be shown to be naïve of the already collected details
• Verification of information from mediums and a greater understanding
of the processes of mediumship
• Evidence for survival from reincarnation research
• Evidence from near-death and shared death experiences
• Physical evidence (e.g., acoustic anomalies)
• Evidence of a consistent difference in process when the perception is
believed to be a communication as opposed to when it is believed to be
a psychic impression
• Qualitative research with mediums from different cultural contexts
• Neuroscientific evidence of brain differences during verifiable
communication or psi experience

43. Bibliographic Resources:
Alvarado, C. S., & Zingrone, N. L. (1995). Characteristics of hauntings with and
without apparitions: An analysis of published cases. Journal of the Society for
Psychical Research, 60, 385–397.
Cornell, T. (2002). Investigating the paranormal. New York: Parapsychology
Foundation.
Mackenzie, A. (1982). Haunting and apparitions. London: England: William
Heinemann.
Mackenzie, A. (1997, February). A woman in black. Paranormal Review, 9-10.
McCue, P. A., & Gauld, A. (2005). Edgehill and Souter Fell: A critical examination of
two English “phantom army” cases. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,
69, 78-94.
Pearson, P. (2015). Opening heaven’s door: What the dying are trying to say about
where they are going? New York, NY: Simon & Schuster/Atria Books.

44. Thank you …
Email me:
nancy@theazire.org
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