There are people who think that ghosts roam ancient stately homes and ancient castles, but as most researchers know, this is not always the case. Ghosts can be found in many modern council houses, shops, burger bars etc, indeed, there are very few places that alleged spirits of the dead have not been seen. So therefore it came as no surprise when a few months back, my partner Judy and I were contacted by a gentleman who had read my two page article in my local newspaper The Ealing And Acton Gazette. The chap gingerly explained that his ‘girls’ had been subjected to ‘visions’ of an old man, there were also your usual ‘cold spots’, and a general sense of uneasiness pervaded the whole building. I sensed something more, something that this chap wasn’t telling me, so therefore I pushed him for more information. What had he meant by ‘his girls’ ? Slowly he began to tell me that he ran a ‘club’ in Ealing. This however wasn’t your normal down to Earth Saturday night drinking spot, this was, how can I say, an "unglorified" strip club !! He requested that I make an appointment to visit the club where I could interview his ‘girls’ and find out more in regards to what had been happening. I asked the chap if my girlfriend Judith Jaafar could come along, and his reply was, "well, so long as she has a broad mind" !! It was at this stage that I was wondering what I was letting myself in for, but nonetheless, duty was at hand, and as I said earlier, ghosts can appear at the most normal, (and probably abnormal) places, so no matter the venue, I had to go out in search of the truth !!

Judy and I arrived at the ‘club’ a few days later (I won’t name it for reasons which will become obvious later). We were ushered into what I can only describe as a ‘den of iniquity’. This was not your ordinary club, this was basically a big house which had a few walls knocked down. Thankfully we didn’t need to pay the customary £20:00 entrance fee. I scanned across the dimly lit room and saw a few men sitting on some benches, behind them were a set of curtains, with, as could be seen through a gap in the curtains, a mattress on the floor. There were also other mattresses in evidence, and, at the far wall a shower cubicle. In the middle of the floor was a raised platform which also had a mattress on it and a silver pole which came down towards it. We were introduced to a sweaty fat man who thanked us for coming and told us both to ascend some very precarious vertical wooden ladders which joined an upstairs room. We eventually surfaced into another very dingy area, (it was like one of those places that you wiped your feet ‘on the way out’ ). We were then asked to help ourselves to bottles of beer and sandwiches which were plentiful and needless to say I partook of this kind gesture several times.

It soon became clear that we were not going to get a chance to talk to his ‘girls’, as they were all in some changing rooms (bedroom) putting make up on and shuffling into tight ill-fitting costumes, (school girl St. Trinians and the like). Then suddenly we heard music coming from down stairs and you didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know what was going on. Some minutes later, a totally naked woman came up the rickety wooden ladders and made her way towards me and Judith. She stood in front of both Judy and me (we were sitting down) and proceeded to talk to us. This all seemed so unreal, so bizarre, there wasn’t a care in the world as this totally naked lady, just inches away from my face, was rattling on about (what I can’t even remember). With every 5 minutes, yet another naked woman made her way up the ladders and walked by our seated position. I honestly felt very uncomfortable, (believe it or not). I just didn’t like this place and felt I had to get out. Having told Judy my feelings, I mentioned that I would go downstairs in search of the proprietor and tell him that we would be back another day, (I had no actual intentions of ever coming back). I gingerly stepped down these unbelievable dodgy ladders and was confronted by a naked lady cavorting in front of a number of men who by now had grown in numbers. Not finding the chap, I made my way back upstairs where Judy had actually spoken to one of the ‘dancers’ who told her that it certainly was true that there was a ghost in the building and that the ‘girls’ were all quite frightened of it. Just then, a businessman in a typical pin-striped business suit was asked by one of the scantily clad ‘girls’, to pull down a ladder from above our heads. This he did, and proceeded to make his way upwards towards a loft area followed by one of the scantily clad ‘girls’. It was very obvious what they were going up for.

By now, I definitely had had enough. I’m no prude but this place was unreal. Judy and I made our way down the ladders and whilst looking for the proprietor saw that one of the dancing ‘girls’ was having a shower in the corner of the room, but she wasn’t alone ! She was then joined by around six men each who were enjoying rubbing shaving foam into various parts of her body. We found the proprietor, made our excuses to him, and left. Boy was I ever glad to get out of a place in my life !!! Needless to say, we never went back to this place and the chap never called us again.

The two women to whom I (Judy) spoke (yes, at least one of us had the presence of mind to pursue the investigation!) had this tale to tell:-

Emma was a tall thin woman in her forties, and appeared to have assumed the role of surrogate mother to the rest of the brood. She was a strangely fascinating character, one moment overtly sexual, the next homely and maternal. She confided to me that she had been psychic all her life, and seeing spirits was nothing new to her. The ghostly activity was confined exclusively to the lower floor of the establishment, and was only evident at quiet times when the club was empty.

She had, on several occasions, seen a tall thin man in a black coat and hat, old-fashioned and somewhat stern looking, a typical "Victorian father" type. At first these apparitions did not bother her in the least, as she was used to witnessing such phenomena. But as time progressed the figure began to assume more menacing proportions. She became afraid, and reported the incidents to the proprietor.

I asked her if it were at all possible that this was a real person who had somehow slipped into the club unobserved, perhaps with a view to dodging the extortionate entry fee ! She vehemently assured me that this was no real live person, and that when she had tried to communicate with it she got no response, nor even recognition of her presence. She had decided in her own mind that the ghost was there to show its disapproval of what was going on in the club. "Amen to that," I thought to myself.

When Emma reported her experience to the owner, another girl Kate was prompted to do the same. I managed to corner Kate in the changing room and speak to her for a few minutes while she was preparing for her next act. When you’re transforming from one state of nakedness to another, preparation doesn’t take very long!

Kate seemed genuinely afraid of the goings-on and, I believe, given the opportunity, would have talked at length. I noticed that she was wearing several small crosses and crucifixes round her neck, a seeming incongruity with her profession.

Her experiences were very different from Emma’s. She had never seen the tall man, nor indeed had she ever seen anything. Hers was an aural and sensing awareness of unseen activity. Again, the phenomenon manifested itself only on the ground floor and only when she was alone in the club. The first time she heard the children’s voices she was astonished that youngsters would be out late at night and could have found their way into the premises.(The club was down a twisting dark alleyway, behind a plain black door leading onto the main street). I myself have lived in Ealing for 15 years and never knew of the existence of such a place. Anyway, she descended the precarious ladder with the intention of showing the children out, but to her puzzlement found no-one there. After a search of the building and the area outside, she went back upstairs, convinced that she had imagined the whole thing.

No sooner was she settled down again, when the voices returned - laughing, talking, playing. Disconcerted this time, she gingerly made her way down the ladder, only to be greeted by complete silence as her foot hit the bottom rung. She said it was like a tape-recorder being switched off (without realising the possible accuracy of such a statement), and the room was unnaturally cold.

She has heard the voices several times since, but makes no attempt to investigate them now. She’s scared, and makes sure that she’s never alone in the downstairs room. The atmosphere there is oppressive, she says, and she can sense invisible presences from time to time. I too found the atmosphere oppressive, but for very different reasons. Malcolm has been very circumspect in his detailing of what goes on at "The Haunted Strip Club", I can assure you.

I gave Kate my card and told her to get in touch with us if she needed help. I was game for going back to the club, after hours, and gathering some more information, but Malky chickened out! It could have something to do with the fact that a couple of the girls approached him and asked him to slip some money into the pint glasses they were holding - they thought he was a punter! The indignities we have to endure sometimes in the line of duty.

Judith Jaafar.

I wondered if I should have written this up for the SPI web page. I wasn’t going to but I decided that it would make a funny story. I guess if you’re a ghost and you had the chance of haunting either a snooker club or a ‘strip club’, I guess it would be the strip club every time !!! So there we have it. As a researcher, you get invited to research the most amazing and peculiar places, this was certainly one of them, but one I’d rather forget !! MR.

I was kindly invited by UFO researcher Dianne Shepard of the Northampton UFO society to present a lecture to their members last month. The lecture went well and was well attended. I spoke about a number of fascinating Scottish UFO cases that have occurred throughout the years, (including the now very famous A70 Incident). I met up with author and fellow researcher Natalie Osbourne Thomason and we had a brief chat about the ‘spirit world’ (I wish it could have been longer). The usual problems that I encounter with my lectures happened again !! The slide projector jammed. This is becoming more common than hot dinners with me right now and I wonder if someone somewhere has got it in for me ! (only kidding). Thankfully we got it fixed, but it left me with a few more scratched slides. Ah well, these things happen. The Northampton UFO society are a great bunch and I strongly recommend that you make contact. Contact Diane Shepard at 108 Malcolm Drive, Northampton, England, NH5 5NH, Tel: 01604 756 153.

My next lecture was to be quite a ‘bigeee’. I was kindly invited to talk on board a cruise ship that was sailing between Portsmouth in England, to Bilboa in Spain, all expenses paid. If that wasn’t good enough, also on the agenda was Uri Geller, Budd Hopkins, Jenny Randles, Lynn Picknett and Clive Prince, plus my good friends from Glasgow, UFO rock band CE IV. This time I was talking not only on UFOs, but on ghosts and spirits as well, (my preferred subject !) I had spent quite a bit of time and money preparing this talk, spending a lot on acetates and slides, and arranging to take time off from work. Well, like all things that are too good to be true, the rug was pulled from everyone’s feet. P&O Liners pulled out for reasons which I’ve still actually to find out. The cruise was being organised (in part) by my colleague Philip Mantle. Philip too was gutted, more so because of all the time and effort he had put into this to get it off the ground. Still hopefully this might yet occur and if so, I’ll let you know.

My next scheduled excursion into talk land will see me appear with Graham Birdsall and Russell Callaghan at Steve Gerrard’s one day UFO Conference in Southampton on Sunday the 24^th of October 1999. The event kicks off at 10am and finishes around 5:00pm. A cafeteria will be available at the Conference. Tickets are priced at £12:00 and concessions are priced at £10:00. Free car parking is available at the venue. The venue is the Solent Conference Centre (above bar), Southampton. (Opposite Tyrrel and Green’s Department Store) Do try and come along as it aims to be quite a day. Send a cheque or postal order made payable to Steven Gerrard, 25 Weston Grove Road, Woolston, Southampton, Hants, England, SO19 9EE. Telephone Steve for more information on 01703 448 194. Or check out his web site on southampton@sufog.freeserve.co.uk Well worth the money (especially for that chap Robinson !!!) News just in. A UFO group has invited me to give a talk about UFOs on the American Air Force Base at Bentwaters which as you all know, is situated near Rendlesham Forest. More news when I have it.

As part of the National UFO skywatch, The British UFO Research Association and Strange Phenomena Investigations (England), will be holding a skywatch near Bonnybridge.

We do hope that readers of our web page will participate in this National skywatch, which will in effect, assist all the Scottish UFO groups (whom I have notified) in coming together on this evening to the benefit of all. At the end of the day, I hope that all the Scottish UFO groups that I notified do participate where we can all meet up and exchange stories and hopefully secure ties for the future of Scottish UFOlogy. I want it, do the rest ?!!

To confirm your presence on the night, please telephone me (Malcolm Robinson) on 0181 998 4936, or E-Mail me at spi_spi@hotmail.com Let’s hope the weather is kind !!

I’m writing this piece 2 days before the impending eclipse of the sun, and I just can’t wait. Having read all "experts’" views in many of the National tabloids, I’m beginning to wonder if there will be anyone working on that day - production looks like being lost in factories throughout the U.K. I for one, hope that my ‘gaffer’ allows the office to go outside and take part in this once in a life time extravaganza. Will the world end ? Not a chance. Will we all still be here for the issue of the SPI England News ? you betcha. Joking aside, this is a tremendous celestial event and something that I am looking forward too, and like the skywatch planned for September, I hope the weather doesn’t spoil all the fun.

UFO ‘Hot Spot’ Bonnybridge in Stirlingshire Scotland, has been in the news again. It would appear that strange things are still afoot and being sighted in this boiling pot of the weird and wonderful. In an issue of the Falkirk Herald (The region’s biggest newspaper) is a story entitled Billy Makes New UFO Probe Plea To Scots Secretary. This is what the story had to say.

Well, the fight goes on !! As people who know me will attest, Councillor Buchanan and I have tried for several years to get the British Government involved with the Bonnybridge phenomenon, all to no avail. This latest step by Billy, is in my opinion, a good one, and will let Donald Dewar realise that we won’t be fobbed off with "of no defense significance" statements anymore. We want action, and it’s time for the Scottish Parliament to stand up and be counted. Well done Billy. (My thanks to Paul McKenachar for the press report). But it doesn’t stop there !! People who know Billy, know that for all his seriousness, he is still a bit of a character. Billy has completed a C.D. entitled "Lights of Bonnybridge" and, "They’re Here". This was recorded with a local pop band. In a recent phone call to me, he stated that it is number one in Afghanistan and doing quite well !!! That’s typical of Billy !! Billy is ready to stage yet another Falkirk Town Hall event. It’s occurring on Wednesday the 24^th of November 1999 at 7:30pm. He will be featuring a guest speaker (unknown to me for the moment). He will also be singing (with his band) his single, and will be featuring video footage of UFO sightings in and around the Bonnybridge area on a giant T.V. screen. Tickets are priced at £5:00 and are available by telephoning the Steeple on 01324 506850. If anything, it aims to be an ‘interesting night’ !!!

And there’s more !!

I was recently sent an article from a local Southampton newspaper (thanks David Williams), in which they were offering a weekend trip for two to Scotland. Venue, why Bonnybridge of course. Choice Hotels Europe hit upon the idea (wonder if Councillor Buchanan was behind this !!) to have another bash at getting people into the spirit of UFO searching. Apparently Choice Hotels Europe had already had a successful event in March with a UFO Comfort Break at a local Falkirk Hotel (near Bonnybridge). That proved a big success and so they decided to keep that going by having a break for two contest for Bonnybridge. General Manager of Choice Hotels Europe Paul Colquhoun was reported as saying, "Our fist weekend was a great success and very popular. We were deluged by UK and foreign media enquiries and London Weekend Television spent the whole weekend filming for a documentary about the UFO phenomenon which is to be shown in the Autumn". I was actually asked to appear on this show by LWTV but unfortunately (well maybe not), Judith and I were going to Turkey for a summer break during the time of filming, so I couldn’t participate. And how could you win this elaborate competition ? Simple, just answer the following question. How many recorded UFO sightings have there been in the Falkirk area ? As the competition has now passed, I can give you that answer. According to the newspaper, there have been 350 reported sightings, (and that’s the figure I personally gave to the media a few years ago, a figure which I know is correct, none of this 2 to 3 thousand reports.) Well I hope the winners enjoyed their stay in Bonnybridge - it certainly is a most peculiar place.

One thing about me, is I like getting into the thick of things, and this summer has been no different. I like to visit Wiltshire in England to ‘re-charge’ my batteries (as it were) and take in the sights of Silbury Hill, Avebury and crop circles. Judith and I travelled down in early August to visit not only parts of Wiltshire, but also to meet up with our good friend and fellow researcher (and sadly Crop Circle Hoaxer), Matthew Williams. On the morning of our departure, I sat having breakfast perusing the Daily Mail, when lo and behold a 2 page colour special lit up my eyes. It concerned a massive crop circle that had appeared during the night near some of the many Avebury standing stones and in direct view of the Red Lion pub in Avebury. Fantastic, I said to myself, but my excitement soon turned to gloom as I continued to read the piece which stated that it was all just a stunt or test set up by the Daily Mail to see how people reacted to circles of this nature. What did they really think ? Who or what, did they think it was made by ? Before they (The Daily Mail) exposed themselves, they duly asked those assembled ‘croppies’ what they thought of this masterly design. One lady and her husband calmly said that it was all down to the little people, in other words ‘fairies’ (groan). Another said that he was getting massive readings on his field meter which clearly indicated that it was of ‘paranormal design’ (double groan), and then there was the chap with (well you knew it was coming) the dowsing rods who said he had a great reaction with the rods which again indicated that this was not man made, (triple groan). Oh dear. The fact was, it was man made. Hoaxers John Lundberg and Rod Dickinson with some others made it in only a few hours during a full moon. Now this field is elevated and gives one a commanding view of it, (more so during daylight hours). How nobody saw them making it is beyond me, but it’s the belief system that is now engendered within certain sections of the crop circle community that for me beggared belief - they are prepared to believe anything. I’ve always said that 99% of crop circles are hoaxes, the remaining one per cent may be something else, but what I don’t know. There are at least seven crop circle hoaxing teams in various parts of England, all using the fields of England as a canvas for their handiwork. It sucks, I hate it, I wish they would stop, for if there truly was/is a phenomenon occurring in the fields of England, it is now ‘overmasked’ by the antics of the hoaxers. One forged bank note doesn’t mean to say that all bank notes are forgeries, I know that, and that is why those early singular circles proved more interesting to me, (coupled with the alleged anomalous lights seen nearby them).

My colleague and good friend Matthew Williams has admitted quite freely to hoaxing many circles in the Wiltshire area for reasons too long and complex to go into here, but he states that he didn’t do them just for the thrill of it, he wanted to test ‘people’, test their belief systems, find out why they really felt that these ‘things’ meant something. Matthew’s view doesn’t go down too well with many in the UFO and Crop Circle community, still his was an exercise in human perception and acceptance which I guess in itself, is something to be applauded.

That same night, Judy and I took in a rock concert, (yes, a rock concert in the town of Avebury of all places !! ) It was billed as a Concert for the Eclipse and featured a Pink Floyd tribute band, Pink who !! Now don’t even say it. I’m a great Pink Floyd fan and even although we each had to pay £10:00 each to see them, it certainly was worth it. They played all of the Dark Side Of The Moon album, which if you haven’t heard it, well you’re certainly missing something. The concert was assisted by Matthew Williams video ‘visuals’ which he had been working on that very afternoon when we went down to see him. These ‘visuals’ featured numerous images of various ‘aliens’, then we had the real aliens, images of Margaret Thatcher, morphing into President Bill Clinton, and various other heads of state (and ex heads of state). To see them all morphing into one another was priceless, computer technology is a wonderful thing. The close of the concert saw a spectacular firework display, the first one ever in the history of this famous small town. Also to be seen was a laser light show which equally was very eye catching. To round off the night, Judy and I took off into the fields of Avebury where I got in tune with the many heavy monoliths. The peace and solitude of this still night whilst ‘hugging’ these enormous standing stones was for this sad researcher a fitting end to a wonderful day. For those of you who have never visited Wiltshire, I strongly recommend it, (particularly in Crop Circle season). For those of you who wish to learn more about the Avebury standing stones, try and obtain Terence Meaden’s latest book which is entitled, "The Secrets Of The Avebury Stones" This is published by Souvenir Press Ltd, 43 Great Russell Street, London, WC1B 3PA. (See my review of this book on the SPI Review Books section of our Web Page.)

One of Scotland’s ‘better’ magazines Haunted Scotland edited by Mark Fraser has stopped. The good news is though, that Mark has decided to put all his ghostly information on a web page and has asked me to inform the readers of our own SPI news about this. So for more info on ghosts, poltergeists, and things that go ‘bump’ in the night, check out the following.

I continue with our look back at articles from our highly respected Scottish UFO & Paranormal magazine ENIGMAS which stopped back in 1998. Regular readers will know that I am featuring cases from various issues of ENIGMAS which contain information to do with a whole range of weird and wonderful events. This time round, it concerns an interview that I had with a well known and respected researcher of the "Nessie" phenomenon, Adrian Shine. This is what he had to tell me back in August 1983, (gosh, doesn’t time fly !!).

Abbreviations: (MR) Malcolm Robinson. (AS) Adrian Shine.

N.B. (The first five minutes of this interview with Adrian didn’t come out due to problems with the audio tape, however, here is the rest of what was said. Slight editing has been used on the original account.)

(MR) Have you noticed in your investigations a higher concentration of "Nessie" sightings in the bays around the loch ? (AS) Well it has been alleged that there have been more sightings in bays, for example we have Urquart Bay and Foyers at the river mouths, but it is difficult to divorce this from the fact that human habitation tends to be concentrated in those areas, and of course in the sense of Urquart Bay, it’s a tourist spot so it is very difficult to distinguish possible sightings from human activity. One can also say that there are more sightings in the summer months, and there are more sightings when the weather is nice and calm and you obviously have more people out in this sort of weather, and observation is vastly easier. It is very difficult when you really look at it to draw any sort of conclusion from the sighting pattern. (MR) Is there a particular time of year though that you have found holds more reports ? (AS) Well, there is a definite concentration in the summer months coinciding predictably with the tourist season, so it’s impossible to draw a conclusion from that. (MR) What would you class as an authenticated sighting ? (AS) There is no such thing as an ‘authenticated sighting’, one can only say that probably an average of four or so don’t seem inexplicable, but as you probably realise, there are many sources of error, ie, wakes, diving birds, etc. The water is calm sometimes in a way that the sea seldom is. There is many causes of possible error. There is no such thing as an authenticated ‘surface’ sighting. One would say however, that perhaps some of the local sightings are impressive because the people involved should be familiar with the known causes of error, and some of them still insist that they have seen large animals on Loch Ness. ‘We can’t find fault with these sightings’. Either these people are telling the truth, or they are not, they are unlikely to be confused or mistaken. Certainly there are ambiguous sightings we think it only fair to the eye witnesses of this category to follow the trail to the end.

(MR) So in effect what you are saying is that the local people are used to seeing various effects on the loch such as water birds, wakes etc, but they are still witnessing strange animals !! (AS) On occasions yes. People here who’s father’s may have seen something, or seen something themselves, will perhaps believe in the Loch Ness Monsters. Those who have lived lifetimes around here who have not seen the Loch Ness Monsters, tend not to believe, so perhaps opinions are more polarized than elsewhere. (MR) When did you first start you work here ? (AS) Well we started our work at the close down of our predecessors ‘The Loch Ness Investigation Bureau’, but our initial work was at Loch Morar on the west coast (near Mallaig), because Loch Morar has been having similar sightings, and Loch Morar’s water is much clearer. You see, the Investigation had moved underwater at the end of the 60’s although Loch Ness being heavily peat stained water, rendered underwater photography ambiguous. We thought that we might get a break through to moving to clear water at Loch Morar, in the event of course, we didn’t get any results. We saw lots of fish, the methods worked fine, but we didn’t see anything unusual.

We concluded that passive underwater cameras stood very little chance of success in such a vast volume of water even although we were deploying them. We found that sonar wasn’t good in Loch Morar because it was less uniform than Loch Ness. For this reason I returned back to Loch Ness because at Loch Ness, the uniformity of the side walls is good for sonar, and last year (1982) after some initial trials, we did some fairly good deep water mobile patrols and came up with some 40 contacts of interest. They were interesting in that they were strong and deep and sometimes appeared to move vertically. Now this is something that we have to follow up, sceptical though we are about many of the categories of evidence. It is now essential for us to sort out what these sonar contacts are. If you like, we are here to ‘disprove’ or at least find ‘other explanations’ for the ‘large’ contacts that we have got. Some of the things that we are doing now are rather technical, but the purpose of them is by process of elimination. It is to find out if we are talking about something that is likely to be animate, and to take it to the next stage of resolving to a matter of precisely what ‘they’ are.

(MR) What are your opinions on the Rines underwater photographs ? (AS) As I said, there are problems here with underwater photography caused by the peat stains in the water. Looking at some pictures acquired in 1972, one can only say that they do look like ‘flippers’ or ‘fins’. (MR) But could these ‘flipper’ pictures not be the result of a fish being within short distance of the camera ? (AS) We don’t think so. To begin with, the investigators themselves claim a great distance, whether this is right or wrong I don’t know. I can’t find any known fish in Loch Ness with a fin of that configuration regardless of its size, but of course, other explanations are possible, there are all sorts of weird ‘things’ down there. In the case of the 1975 underwater photographs, I find them less impressive. I think that they are probably material on the loch bed. But in conclusion, all I can say is that the whole episode has to be rated ‘inconclusive’. There are a few people who would disagree with that. (MR) Adrian, what do you do with your "Nessie" reports ? (AS) Well all we do is to take note of them and move on, there is nothing else we can do. It is not really possible to assess reports, apart from the obvious that most of these reports are perfectly sincere reports of quite ordinary things in the loch, boat wakes being number one. (MR) How many ‘creatures’ do you think that there are in Loch Ness ? Of course there has to be a stage of extinction of any animal when there is one left, so we don’t know whether we are talking about a viable population. I think the numbers, although estimates have been made, one would have to know what species in order to know what we are talking about. (MR) Some people have suggested the possibility of a family of Plesiosaurs being in Loch Ness due to being trapped in the loch when there was a land upheaval thousands of years ago and adapted to the freshwater conditions, what is your opinion on this ? (AS) Well from an environmental point of view, "No".

Well it was a long time ago, but I remember the day well, hot and sunny (a rarity in Scotland !) and as I mentioned earlier, much, very much, of this interview was lost due to problems with the tape, and, it must be said, my recorder batteries running out !! Adrian firmly believes that the other Loch Ness researcher Frank Searle (see previous issue of the SPI England web site about Frank,) faked ‘all’ his photographs of "Nessie". Adrian also believed at that time, that the "Nessie" legend was only going to be resolved through underwater photography, although we now know that through the years, his involvement in ‘Operation Deepscan’ to name but a few research projects, involved the use of highly developed sonar, which incidentally ‘did’ pick up further anomalous readings. He doesn’t put much stock in surface "Nessie" photographs and states that they don’t constitute proof, at least not scientific proof. He hasn’t ever witnessed anything strange himself (that I now know about !) but one of the more interesting points that he made to me on that day, and one that always sticks in my memory, was the following.

He is of the opinion that former Loch Ness water bailiff Alex Campbell (whom I interviewed many years ago), gave a false and misleading report on what he himself saw in 1934, ( a head and neck of some strange aquatic beast) and as such, a certain ‘mythology’ was then superimposed by the fascinated public which grew leaps and bounds and created the interest that we have today. I don’t agree with this at all. Adrian Shine is still very much active today at Loch Ness and is part and parcel of the numerous investigative studies that are always ongoing up at the Loch. I remember when I revisited Loch Ness back in 1994 to go down in the Loch Ness submarine, (what an experience that was) that I again met up with Adrian who was still as keen as ever to get to the bottom of what was in Loch Ness. He was analysing core samples from the loch bed and was explaining all about them to me. He is of the opinion these days that what is in Loch Ness is a very large sturgeon ‘fish’ - well that’s still to be proved. At the end of the day, we are still awaiting the definite conclusive proof that there ‘is’ indeed something down there. I believe that there is, and I don’t think that it’s a sturgeon.

According to a report that was featured in one of the major newspapers recently, top explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes has promised to help track down the Loch Ness Monster. Apparently this chap has already hunted for ‘Bigfoot’ and the ‘Yeti’ and suggested that Loch Ness gets narrowed down to sections where researchers could search for "Nessie" section by section. Now that’s actually a good idea !! He expects that it will take years to solve, but is convinced that something will be found. Sir Ranulph was up in Scotland to officially open the new £1 million "Nessie" exhibition centre at Drumnadrochit.

Web readers will know from our last issue that SPI was researching the strange events that were occurring to a woman from Laurieston near Falkirk. We learned from our first part of the numerous strange and very disturbing ghostly events that had been occurring in the home of Mrs Smith. Part 2 now features the conclusion of this Investigation.

Paul McKay SPI researcher now informs us from some of the notes that he made from our interview with Jean Smith made on Saturday April 4^th 1987. "We arrived at Mrs Smith’s home at 1405 hrs and found her to be relaxed and friendly. She began by relating her experiences in hospital. Following an operation JS was moved to a small ward and was sitting up in bed when she happened to look across the ward and saw a semi-transparent figure of a woman sitting on an old fashioned bed. The vision, she said, was only that of the top half of this woman. She went on to say that several more ‘people’ appeared, but only for a short time". Owing to the frequent paranormal disturbances in the home of JS, I, Malcolm Robinson, called upon the services of two Church Of Scotland ministers to conduct an exorcism in her home. The following are notes that I made from that session which occurred on the 27^th of May 1987.

Having arrived at Mrs Smith’s home early, we sat and awaited the arrival of the Church of Scotland Ministers. At 7:40pm, Jean opened the door to the two ministers and led them through towards the living room. However, only one entered the living room, Donald Bartle (pseudonym). I asked Donald where his colleague was and he replied that he would be through in a moment. After a period of some minutes, I heard what sounded like the ringing of small bells coming from the hallway. As the door was partly ajar, I could see Donald’s colleague pacing up and down the hallway, eyes shut, and at times, clapping his hands and ringing a small bell ! During this time, J.S. and I were explaining to Donald about the incidents which had occurred and were still occurring in her home. After about 20 to 25 minutes, Robert Pearson (pseudonym) entered the living room with his eyes closed and began pacing the living room floor. At times he would blow into his hands, and at times he would breathe what sounded like ‘snoring noises’. Mr Pearson then approached Jean and tapped her on the arms, head, and back. At one point, Mr Pearson stood quite still and then proceeded to utter a strange and American Indian like language !!! I informed Mr Bartle that to the best of my knowledge, this did not appear to be a normal Church of Scotland exorcism, (!!) to which he replied that this was quite true, but the Holy Spirit worked through people in different ways and this was the case with his colleague. After a while, Mr Pearson went back into the hallway (and other rooms in the house) whilst I, Jean and Donald conversed once more on what was going on in Jean’s home. Mr Pearson again returned to the living room and at times blew into his cupped hands (towards the ceiling corners of the living room). Mr Pearson then ‘touched’ Mrs Smith, and even ‘touched’ me !!

At one point in the proceedings, Mr Bartle sat quietly in his chair, eyes closed, and it looked to me that he was inwardly saying a prayer for Mrs Smith. A 8:28pm, Mr Pearson opened his eyes and walked about the room. I asked him how he felt, had he perceived anything ? He gave no reply, and again closed his eyes and continued walking about the room slowly. At 9:32pm he opened his eyes and informed us that the phenomenon was centered around Jean and not the two houses that she had occupied before (see last SPI England web report). He felt a ‘presence’ around Jean, but could not discern what this was. This then, was what basically transpired on that evening, quite an unusual exorcism ! All this unfortunately was to no avail, for events actually increased in intensity over the next few weeks. Earlier in May 1987, I had approached the Alloa Christian Spiritualist Church for their help. John Allardice, Chairman of the Alloa Church who is a medium himself, perceived a tall thin gentleman in Jean’s home who wanted to speak to her. Walter Manini, a member of the Church and who himself had mediumistic powers, saw an old lady’s face ‘superimpose’ itself over Jean’s face. Emily Manini, Walter’s wife, administered psychic healing on Jean which helped to relax her. The aforementioned members of the Alloa Church gained several interesting pieces of information from the ‘spirit world’ which Jean Smith accepted as fact and indeed was quite surprised by it all.

Having tried various methods to alleviate the situation which was occurring in Jean’s home, I decided to try a new and entirely different approach. This approach deals mainly with the Earth’s magnetic fields. A Mr. Andrew Davie from Alloa can produce an effect in a location by actually giving that location strange paranormal incidents, or taking them away !!! Firstly, let’s have some info on Mr Andrew Davie.

69 year old Andrew Davie comes from the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire Scotland. Andrew has been actively involved with matters relating to electromagnetism in relation to strange phenomena. Andrew reckons that ‘his’ theory can account for ghosts, UFOs, and other strange phenomena. Andrew is also a member of the Scottish Federation of Dowsers and uses a pendulum over a special chart which he himself designed to determine what is the cause of a particular person’s ailment. By the use of this pendulum and the snip sample of a subject’s hair, he can inform that person exactly what is the matter with them. Andrew has travelled extensively around the world and has given many lectures on his theories.

It was a warm evening on the 23^rd of July 1987when Mr Davie collected me from Alloa in his car, and we then proceeded on to the village of Shieldhill. (Mrs. Smith had just recently returned from Laurieston to her old home in Shieldhill as the council had now finished renovations.)

N.B. This is where the article stopped from that particular issue of ENIGMAS, and guess what !! I don’t seem to have the following issue which contained the next part. Anyway, from memory, here is what transpired. We met up with Mrs Smith and Andrew explained to her that he was going to try and stop the paranormal events from happening in her home. I must admit, I was most surprised to see how he was going to go about it. Andrew began to rummage around in a large brown case that he had brought with him, and out of this case he brought several Ankh crosses. I asked him what he planned to do with these and his reply was that they were a kind of aerial which deflected paranormal effects from occuring !! Just like the aerial that each and everyone of us has on the top of our homes, (those aerials bringing the television signal into our homes), his aerials actually deflected paranormal effects away from Jean’s home. !! This was all new me, and I had never (and even now) seen or heard anything of this nature. Still it was worth a try. We placed several of these Ankh aerials at various places around the outside of Jean’s home. I lifted up a heavy paving slab and we placed one under there. We dug holes in the front and back garden and placed more there, and, if my memory serves me correctly, we placed one underneath her house in a cellar. To cut a long story short, none of this worked, and Jean continued to witness strange paranormal manifestations in her home. Sadly a few months later Jean Smith passed away and her family asked me to come to her cremation. I didn’t ask what she had died of, so to this day I don’t know. All in all, it had been a very trying and tragic case and the usual question still comes into my mind, "I wonder if the new tenants of Jean Smith’s home were subjected to ghostly manifestations?" This is one thing that any paranormal investigator has trouble in finding out. I mean, how can you possibly go to a previous case and ask the new tenant there, "Hey, are you still getting ghostly manifestations in your home?" You can’t do it,can you !!

In our next issue of looking back through the ENIGMAS files, I’ll be reviewing some more strange cases that we at SPI researched through those early years.

Accomplished author Lynn Picknett and fellow researcher Clive Prince will be presenting information from their recent book ‘The Stargate Conspiracy’. What really lies behind the major cults that claim to channel extraterrestrials ? Is there another more ‘terrestrial’ but equally disturbing explanation for apparent contact with, as she calls them, Space Gods ? This promises to be an intriguing lecture which aims to provide interesting and important clues as to what may lie behind the UFO enigma.

PLEASE NOTE: There have been two changes to the scheduled BUFORA London lectures. Reg Presley will not now be talking to BUFORA on Saturday 6^th November, his place has been filled by Len Farra who will be talking about his research into ancient civilisations and their dealings with extraterrestrials. Don’t fret though, Reg has agreed to speak to BUFORA next year, (more in a moment). Sadly Kate Taylor had to pull out of her talk to BUFORA for December next year, this position is still to be filled. Here is the current line up of speakers for BUFORA for 1999 through to 2000.

Unless stated otherwise, all lectures will be occurring at the University of Westminster London. See full address above.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, that brings me to the close of another SPI England news. My thanks to Judith Jaafar and Dean Ladds for all their help, and to you, for taking time out to read this news. Do check out our web site again for future updates, and don’t forget to check out our latest book reviews. My best wishes to all.

©Malcolm Robinson, SPI ENGLAND 1999.
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Mail Malcolm at SPI England.

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