Intrigued by search for the spirit of Highgate

18 March 2005

I WAS intrigued to read your report last week about the intentions of a ghost hunter, Andrew Wright, to finally 'lay' the Highgate ghost, especially so as it was myself who inadvertently started the whole scenario - at least as far as the media and many local people were concerned.

What actually happened is that back in late 1969 many local people reported seeing or encountering a tall dark-clad figure with 'hypnotic red eyes' in and around Highgate Cemetery.

I myself interviewed many of these people at the time and was convinced many of their accounts were genuine, although I certainly dismissed many other local stories that the figure seen might be a vampire - a conclusion probably aided in the minds of some by the figure's 'hypnotic red eyes'.

Fascinated by these accounts, it was eventually decided to hold a psychic séance in Highgate Cemetery; its purpose to make 'psychic contact' with the alleged entity and discover if it had any 'real' existence. Unfortunately this séance was interrupted by the police who were keeping watch on the cemetery due to an increase in vandalism.

I was taken to court in 1970 charged with 'being in an enclosed area for an unlawfulful purpose'. When this case first came before Mr Christopher Lea (his real name) the police (having heard all the local rumours and supposition about vampires) maintained that this purpose involved vampire hunting and as such an assumption on the part of the police was stated in open court, the press picked up the story and it subsequently made headlines world-wide.

In fact I denied that this was the intention at all, but that it was all part of a wider investigation into an unexplained pnenomenon that had been reported.

I added that, in any event, it was just as akin to hunt vampires (as the police were maintaining) as it was for some to spend vast sums of money trying to locate the Loch Ness Monster. I was acquitted, but had been well and truly branded as a vampire hunter, when in reality I am just a psychic investigator.

I do not even accept the existence of blood-sucking vampires and regard this conception as pure fiction. This does not necessarily invalidate the existence of many ghostly phenomena, some of which may be of a possibly malevolent disposition and can even remain 'earth-bound' and be witnessed by humans.

But this is only really just a small part of the equation.

Often it seems psychic energy is connected in some way with ley lines (lines of natural energy which criss-cross the earth's surface and which were invariably marked by stones) and is in some way conducted by these.

Certainly it is the case that The Flask public house and Ye Olde Gatehouse (both only yards from Highgate Cemetery) are situated directly upon such a ley line and both buildings have had spasmodic spates of psychic - or 'ghostly' - activity. A ghostly black figure has been reported in both, just like the one witnessed in and around Highgate Cemetery, which is itself situated on the same ley line.

Maybe Andrew Wright and his group of ghost hunters would like to explore this possibility still further.

There may also be another reason: psychic activity can often lie dormant for a while only to become active again if various structures that supposedly house it are in some way altered or disturbed.

I understand there has been some substantial building work near Highgate Cemetery (in fact in Swains Lane) so now might be a good time to consider this possibility.

DAVID FARRANT

President, British Psychic and Occult Society, N10