Ghost Fest : Hunting for the haunted

Published on Saturday 2 May 2009 11:28

AN unseasonal chill has descended on the Royal Mile and the cold air swirls down the close of East Entry as the TV ghostbuster, the medium, and the parapsychologist duck into a stone spiral staircase and climb several flights.

They are heading for flat number nine, where moving objects have been reported in the kitchen, and there is, apparently, a historic connection to David Hume – though the nature of that link is as hazy as the mist outside.

As the night progresses, the medium will detect the presence of a man of authority, who has a way with words and a ruby ring on his finger.

The "electronic voice phenomenon" machine will repeatedly leap into life of its own accord and then die away – but the crockery will, disappointingly, stay firmly put on the kitchen counter.

In fact, after the suitably-gothic approach, the interior of the flat is a touch disappointing. It's tiny and recently refurbished. There's a living room/kitchen with a worn leather sofa in front of a large TV, and a cosy bedroom where the old-fashioned stove in the wall is the only sign of the building's age. It looks like an unlikely spot for a haunting – but perhaps ghosts are no respecter of refurbishments by holiday flat-let companies.

Among the ghost-hunting party is Dr Ciaran O'Keeffe, familiar to viewers of TV's Most Haunted as the calming voice that brings a dash of rigour to on-screen proceedings amid the trembling gasps of Yvette Fielding and the possessions that befall medium Derek Acorah.

He's in Edinburgh to promote the Mary King's Close Ghost Fest, which kicks off on May 8. The week includes Scotland's first online paranormal investigation, ghost hunts at Malmaison hotel, Blair Street Vaults and Gilmerton Cove, and Ciaran himself leading ghost hunts in Mary King's Close with TV colleague Steve Parsons.

It is the latest venture in a life dedicated to the exploration of the supernatural.

He held his first 'investigation' with friends at the age of just six, when they sat around a campfire telling one another ghost stories at a supposedly-haunted derelict pig farm in Norfolk.

It was, however, seeing the film Ghostbusters that made him think that he could turn professional.

"When I saw Ghostbusters I heard the term parapsychologist for the first time and there were three academic researchers there involved in parapsychology. I even called Colombia University, which is mentioned in the film."

Columbia didn't, in reality, have a department of parapsychology, but referred him to Washington College, where he gained a degree in music and psychology, specialising in parapsychology. In 2005, he completed his doctorate at the University of Hertfordshire with a study assessing the advice given by psychics and mediums.

A self-confessed sceptic, he walks a finely-balanced intellectual tightrope when it comes to the existence of supernatural phenomena. "The true meaning of the word sceptic is somebody who is open-minded to the possibility but lets the evidence speak, not somebody who's cynical, who's dismissive. I have a genuine interest in this area, but for me it's about the evidence," he says.

He has not ruled out the possibility that there just might be something out there, adding: "There has to be a part of me that's fascinated by this area enough to say maybe someday somebody will come up with the proof.

"How is that going to happen? I don't know, because scientists require a lot of controls – our standards of evidence are a lot higher than the average person."

Which is how he comes to be in this tiny flat high above the Lawnmarket, carefully laying out three glasses and three mugs in the kitchen to tempt any would-be poltergeists into action. It is a nod to his intellectual rigour – given that the flat has been chosen because of reports by holidaymakers of objects moving in the kitchen he feels the group should test that, and that alone.

The approach contrasts with that of paranormal inventor Paul Rowland, who is busy assembling assorted equipment of his own creation, which he hopes will pick up all manner of spooky signals.

There are cameras with ultraviolet flash (for which the lights have to be dimmed, helping to create obligatory spooky atmosphere), movement sensors, a video camera, and – the icing on the cake – the "electronic voice phenomenon", or EVP, machines, designed to pick up the sound of spirit voices.

They consist of a microphone and an amplifier with some means of processing the sound, which Paul refuses to reveal. "You can't give away a secret like that," is his only explanation.

Paul, a believer in the existence of the paranormal, will take his equipment, under the title The Paradox Experience, to Mary King's Close during the Ghost Fest, but tonight it's just the flat.

Within a few moments of the switch-on, the EVP machine in the bedroom begins to screech, not with the whispers of the long-departed, but with an ear-splitting electronic tone.

To avoid inducing tinnitus, it is agreed that the tone should be switched off by human hands, rather than waiting to see if the spirits do the job. Paul moves towards it, but before he reaches the controls, the noise stops of its own accord.

The scenario repeats itself three times throughout the evening – the only result from any of the assembled gadgetry. However, Ciaran is quick to point out that, without any explanation of how the box is built, it's hard to be spooked by what appears to be an electrical malfunction.

As the technology fails to spot the spooks, Corstorphine-based medium Ewan Irvine does his best to raise the chill factor.

There is no rolling of the eyes or summoning of souls – he just sits back on the comfy sofa and describes what he senses: "I'm aware of a gentleman, and I know he'd be getting later on in years. I keep getting the surname of Muir. There's a ruby ring – I'm to mention ruby." He's also getting the name Adam and some connection to St Giles' Cathedral, although the character is not a clergyman. There's something important about 1748 (which is, it transpires, the year Hume published An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding), and the man concerned has "a use of big words" and is skilled "with theories".

Ciaran tells Ewan respectfully that, from his personal point of view, the medium is dealing in pseudoscience. However, he doesn't always have such grace when talking about more charlatan ghostbusters.

He says: "More and more I'm getting calls to do what I'm terming 'mopping-up cases' where people have the most mundane or benign experience – a case in point would be one where someone's cat behaved oddly, but she called in someone who was unethical who walked in the door and said that the Archangel Michael was standing on the stairs and that burning babies were coming out of the mirror.

"They (the people who lived there] spent six or seven thousand pounds on trying to get help and each of these people were adding to the problem, so when I went in it wasn't just a cat behaving badly – the four horsemen of the apocalypse had set up house.

"It ended up being as simple as the fact the neighbour didn't like that she had a pet cat that would do its business near her rose bush and had put pepper down.

"That was why the cat was behaving strangely."

But despite such tales of woe, the boy who watched Ghostbusters with such awe has clearly grown into a man thrilled by his unorthodox profession.

When asked how his ambitions have turned out, he laughs: "I don't have a proton pack or a converted firehouse – but I love it, who wouldn't be happy about living their boyhood dream and doing what they love?"

• Edinburgh's Ghost Fest takes place from May 8-17. More info at www.marykingsghostfest.com

www.ghostwatchlive.com

www.theparapsychologist.com

www.paradoxelectronics.com

www.ewanirvine.co.uk