Haunting

‘Imagine a brilliant white light surrounding you…’

OK.

‘Now imagine that bright light passing through you’re body and into the person next to you.’

Right, with you so far…I think.

I’m sure this ritual is very familiar with readers who have attended a paranormal vigil and to some; it is a necessary routine at the start of an investigation. This procedure is supposed to prevent any malicious spirits, demons, elves, fairies, unicorns, pixies etc. from attaching or providing harm to the individual.

So I’m confused here folks and maybe you can help me out? I find this practice very odd indeed. Now in all the time I’ve been doing this I have never been attacked, bitten, whipped, kissed, stripped, slapped or beaten by any potential entity but I’m told that just by imagining a bright light – yes ‘imagining’ which equates to ‘making it up’; then everything will be hunky-dory (and a bonus for Star Trek fans as you can literally say ‘shields up!’). But why does it have to be a bright light that is thought of? Maybe I could imagine an armoured tank that I could sit in and lock the doors - that would surely protect me? Or maybe a suit of armour would do the trick? Or even Sarah Michelle Geller in full Buffy pose ready to thwart any dastardly demons coming my way? As I’ve often said, I think people get carried away about what spirit can allegedly do (what I like to call the ‘Snowball Effect’) and is no doubt a throw back to centuries of old superstitious dogma that has embedded itself on our culture.

On one occasion I was working at a famous London tourist venue filming for a Charity Ghost Hunt. As was expected, a protection ritual was performed for the guests using some incantations and ointments encompassing some ancient Goddess. So as this was all being ceremoniously done, a thought occurred to me – what about the tourists who flock by in the thousands to visit this place for a day out? Do they buy their tickets from the box office with the staff saying something like…

‘That’s one family ticket for you and if you’d like to just pop over to that room, a staff member will provide a protection ritual for you - don’t want any of those nasty spirits spoiling your visit and following you home!’

On another occasion I was invited to join a very nice group of people at a location on the South Coast and sure enough, out pops the protection ritual. I was invited to join in but politely declined - ‘Don’t mind me, you carry on…’ I said as everyone solemnly linked hands and bowed their heads as though attending a funeral! I watched quietly as two girls in the team started to get that most troublesome of habits - the giggles! The group pressed on with more of the ‘feel the light pass round the circle…’ as the ladies did their best to prevent their chortles spurting out onto the proceedings.

Now if you believe in this stuff (and I’m sure many do) that’s fine and who am I to tell you otherwise? I’m always open to new ways of doing experiments on vigils so here’s what I’ll do folks - on the next investigation I’m going to forge ahead and imagine my armoured tank equipped and ready for spiritual protection and while I’m at it, I’ll imagine having Sarah Michelle Geller in the driving seat too - Bonus!

You can purchase Marq’s book at Amazon