What exactly are people encountering on our roads?

The easiest thing in the world (and what to many would be the preferred option) would be to dismiss road ghost encounters along with other kinds of ghostly phenomena as due to a combination of imagination, hoaxing, and confabulation. However, while certain witness events remain open to such criticism, particularly single witness cases (based on the Roman principle that one witness is no witness), as a whole, when we put together the vivid, sometimes matching witness descriptions - the correspondences in the style and timings of encounters; their close resemblance to cases reported elsewhere, and the historical/folkloric record - it begins to add up to something else, something not so easily explicable.

There can be little doubt that people have seen apparitions at Blue Bell Hill and elsewhere - that is, human figures in some cases so life-like in appearance that the witness has afterward unhesitatingly reported the incident to the police, firm in the belief that they have struck and quite probably killed a real person.

Accepting that human beings sometimes see apparitions should come with no great difficulty. Encounters with apparitions date back to the dawn of recorded history. There is even good evidence to suppose that our prehistoric forebears experienced apparitions and, prefacing later popular belief, believed them to be the spirits of the dead, returned to haunt the living.¹

The occurrence of such encounters throughout history, and universally, in quite separate societies and cultures was, according to the scholar and critic Dr Samuel Johnson (1709-84), testament to the reality of the phenomenon - a conclusion that would come to be shared by later, critical studies of the phenomenon (the first of which was instigated by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1882), even if these studies found reason to question the customary beliefs of apparitions solely as the spirits of the dead, and, indeed, whether apparitions are really an objective phenomenon at all.

Today, over a century after the inception of the SPR's pioneering work on the reported phenomena of the 'unseen world', there exists a prodigious body of evidence to the effect that certain, unexplained and repetitive phenomena, do occur. The fact that a proper understanding still eludes us, even in our sophisticated modern age, is more a reflection of the subtlety and complexity of the subject matter (which is demonstrated in microcosm at Blue Bell Hill), coupled perhaps with a scientific aloofness or dogmatic conservatism, than a deficiency in the evidence, although much of this rests, admittedly, on human observation and testimony.

However, times are changing. Some branches of scientific enquiry are beginning to turn their attention to the paranormal field. We find, for instance, more universities offering courses in Parapsychology, reflecting the recognition granted by a few less narrow-minded scientists and academics that the existing data, and the very persistence of the respective phenomena, describes an area of human experience that is worthy of proper study. Irrespective of the conclusions that might be reached in specific cases, its study can only add to our understanding of ourselves, the way we interact with our environment, with one other (on both a personal and socio-cultural level), and possibly teach us something about our fundamental nature.

The real question, then, is not whether people actually see apparitions or not (i.e. sightings of an unexplained nature, as opposed to cases of mistaken identity, delusion, or fabrication), but one of interpretation: What are apparitions? What conditions, if any, are conducive to their appearance, or to seeing them? Why do some people see apparitions while others do not?

These questions are more easily posed than answered. Naturally, given that a century or more of formal study and debate has so far failed to come up with a definitive explanation, it would be unreasonable to expect to arrive any definite conclusions here regarding the case at Blue Bell Hill, or about apparitions in general. The following chapter therefore can only hope to outline some of the theories and possibilities relating to the subject, beginning with subjective experience.

Can we still find a completely rational, everyday explanation for road ghost encounters?

Part I: Mind Games?

The majority of road ghost encounters - as demonstrated so well at Blue Bell Hill - are of the 'spectral jaywalker' type, where the motorist(s) has encountered a figure ambling or, in some cases, stepping into the path of their vehicle. A cursory perusal of the literature will throw up case after case of figures running into or gliding across the paths of moving vehicles. It does seem to be a favourite pastime of a good number of phantoms.

One possible explanation, and one that will be favoured by those who resist the very idea of apparitions as a legitimate phenomenon, is that raised by the Hampstead Local Advertiser in its report on the experience of Peter Leslie on the A41 near Stanmore in 1985. Referring to a spate of similar sightings which accompanied the opening of the M1 motorway over which Mr Leslie's route carried him), 'an expert' (who was identified neither personally or by credentials) attributed such experiences to the hypnotic effects of driving along open stretches of road at twilight. Under such conditions, it was said, motorists could be fooled into misinterpreting bold features such as bridges and junction markers as smaller objects (specifically human figures) in the path of the vehicle. These images which, once established, could last for several seconds, would form the basis of the brain's attempt to rationalize the illusion, and to prompt evasive action. As soon as it had had the chance to re-evaluate and re-compose the image, and with disaster averted, the figure would be found to have vanished.

Commenting on this supposition in the journal Fortean Times in 1994,² I conceded that certain locations may indeed trigger hallucinatory experiences under certain conditions, particularly in lone motorists, but pointed out that often such tidy explanations prove too simplistic. They fail to explain, for instance, why such encounters are not always location-specific, as we would expect if the cause of the illusory figure were a fixed feature, man-made or natural, or for some of the remarkable similarities in description of the apparitions given by different witnesses (which, I have already noted, have not infrequently numbered more than one). Perhaps most significantly in a number of cases, the assumed purpose of the vision - to initiate evasive action - is defeated by the vehicle seeming to strike the figure!

However, while what I shall call the 'M1 hypothesis' may explain a very few, isolated 'road ghost' sightings, it runs into a number of problems when we try to apply it to cases like Blue Bell Hill.

For one, if valid, we should expect to see these encounters confined to long, essentially unvarying stretches of road - motorways or 'A' roads - which, according to the hypothesis, provide three of the vital components that lead to the hallucinatory experience: monotony, speed, and, at the roadside or spanning it, a steady supply of bold physical structures as 'trigger' objects.

Most drivers, I suspect, are familiar with that mindless state that sets in during long or overly familiar journeys. When there is little demand for conscious input - appreciable gear changing, manoeuvring, or route finding - the mind switches to 'autopilot', and the act of driving becomes an almost unconscious exercise. Various labels are applied to this experience: 'road blindness' or 'highway hypnosis'. And the mind is effectively hypnotized. Often the lapse into this state is only recognized after the driver finds him/herself drifting off-line, to be jarred back to alertness by bumping over the 'catseyes'. Occasionally, though, it can and does lead to the driver falling asleep, with predictably disastrous results. One in four motorway accidents, and one out of every six other road incidents are attributed to drivers falling asleep behind the wheel.

In my opinion, though, this effect is most likely to occur not so much under the difficult (i.e. low contrast) conditions of twilight (the fourth and final requisite of the hypothesis, which may or may not have been added as a means of tying in with the timing of Peter Leslie's experience (around 6 p.m.)), but late at night, when traffic volumes are much lower, and particularly to persons travelling alone or without the wakeful company of others. Under these conditions, it is the added sensory isolation, and the fixation of the dominant, visual sense by the narrowed field of view that would be primarily responsible for the induction of the trance state.³

Still, there is no fundamental objection to the idea of this effect occurring under the conditions described, although I think that it must be significant that most road ghost encounters take place late at night. The point here lies with the necessity for these factors to combine to produce a monotonous and confusing scene that temporarily overloads the brain's ability to take in and process the stream of visual information correctly, so that otherwise familiar objects (which are plainly recognized for what they are under normal - daytime - lighting conditions and, as far as I am aware, rarely give rise to apparitional visions of this nature) arriving at speed in the driver's visual field are mistaken for a more immediate and recognizable hazard in the road itself - one that, on a symbolic level, represents perhaps a threat not to the 'figure', but to the driver’s own life.

Applied literally, however, we find it provides a less than satisfactory explanation. Taking Blue Bell Hill as our primary example, we find only one instance that took place at a time approximating twilight. All of the important encounters took place well after dark, late in the evening or the early hours of the morning. More importantly, some have been at low speeds, in some cases virtually static. Only the motorway-grade dual carriageway of the A229 itself compares to the open stretches of road most likely, by this hypothesis, to draw the motorist into the semi-hypnotic state by which he/she is liable to - for want of a better word - hallucinate. But even this, up to the time of Ian Sharpe's encounter in November of 1992, ran unbroken for no more than three miles (or three minutes, at a typical 60 mph) before encountering changes in road layout (a roundabout at either end in this case) that would force the driver into reduced speed manoeuvres that would inevitably break any trance state even before it had really begun. Added to this is the fact that the A229 between Maidstone and the Medway towns has been fully lit since 1989, making arguments relating to effects of contrasting light and shadow largely void. Otherwise, a variety of low speed settings are represented, from dark hedgerow-lined back lanes to the well-lit 'built up' area of Blue Bell Hill village itself.

Even if we were to accept that something similar to the M1 hypothesis might be occurring there (which, from the number of locations where sightings have occurred, would presuppose that Blue Bell Hill possesses an inordinate number of appropriate 'trigger' sites - and some of these are clearly lacking suitable features), it is difficult to imagine quite how these characteristically short-lived and obscure episodes could be transformed into the kind of vivid, close-up experiences of, say, Ian Sharpe or Chris Dawkins. And as an explanation for Maurice Goodenough's experience, which continued outside his car, or for any accepted Phantom Hitch-Hiker encounter or historical case, it seems totally inadequate.

Trance Encounters?

Having said that, I do believe the M1 hypothesis is on the right track. Trance states have long been recognized by researchers as an important factor in many (although certainly not all) instances of ghost-seeing. Driving, as we are well aware, accounts for a good number of apparitional experiences. But someone is just as likely to see a ghost upon looking up from a book, on absent-mindedly entering a room, or, as is frequently the case, waking in the night - the so-called 'bedroom visitor' experience.

While the precise circumstances may vary in each case, a feature common to many of these experiences is the state of mind of the percipient at the time, which is often described as relaxed, unchallenged, idle, bored, and so on. Whatever the activity, it is one usually requiring of little decision-making input. The net result is what many like to call a state of altered consciousness, but which is really a state of preoccupation, of fixation on a particular train of thought or function. Whatever label we attach to it - altered state, trance, daydream, distraction - it is a state that is characterized by the suspension of 'normal' (active) conscious thought - a blanking of mind - which, coupled with the right circumstances, seems conducive to the experiencing of what we term apparitional and other kinds of paranormal phenomena.

The way it appears to work is this: It is estimated that during every second of our lives, our personal sensory equipment - the five senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch) - gather and send to the brain around two million individual messages that describe the world around us, defining what we term 'reality'.

At an early age, we are unable to determine what of that information is relevant to our day-to-day existence or survival, or how to prioritize those sense 'channels' that are most useful to us in particular circumstances. Consequently, young children seem to be plugged into all sense modes simultaneously, absorbing data from all sources like hugely capacious sponges, with the remarkable ability, for instance, to memorize and repeat (sometimes days or weeks later) names, words and phrases heard, perhaps, on a single occasion.

As we grow older, this seemingly useful ability gradually fades - not through choice, but out of the simple necessity to avoid the madness and dysfunction that would result from sensory overload. From the chaotic sea of information impacting on our senses all the time, we gradually learn to select what is relevant, and to 'tune out' of our conscious awareness all else - those messages that are extraneous, repetitive, or deemed to be of lower priority.

As adults, we have learned how to do this very effectively. In the fixated (trance) state nothing else exists but the subject of one's attention. Unless something new or unexpected occurs, other forms of sensory input are acknowledged only peripherally, or not at all.

This ongoing process of filtration and selection is carried out by the unconscious (or subconscious) mind. While the entire spectrum of sensory input continues to be monitored by the unconscious, what is presented to the conscious mind (which we associate with 'awareness' and 'self') at any given moment, therefore, is really an edited version of 'reality' - one that reflects the type, strength and combination of filters employed, and which is further shaped by our individual opinions and beliefs.

How, then, might this lead to a 'paranormal' experience, specifically the sighting of an apparition? Well, just as certain stimuli might be screened out as a consequence of the preoccupation of attention on a single activity, so can certain of these activities, through repetition and continuous feedback, lead to a further reduction in conscious awareness, which has the effect of putting the percipient closer and closer in touch with the unconscious mind - that greater part of mind, the storehouse of all our knowledge, experience and skills, and the wellspring of our ideas, imagination, and dreams.

The process becomes clear when we consider that the function of the conscious mind is to analyze, to compare and make sense of new data presented to it, to apply labels, and so on - a process we know as 'thought'.

Generally, in day to day living, the conscious mind is fed with a sufficiently variable and challenging stream of stimuli so as to sustain active, purposeful thought, to the extent that we commonly regard it as the primary state of consciousness. However, to use a modern analogy - the computer - what we see on the screen of the conscious mind only hints at the unseen activity, programming, storage and computational abilities of the machine behind it. At times when we are at rest, or engaged in certain tiresome or repetitive activities in which no fresh or challenging stimuli are presented, the conscious mind's critical faculties are suspended. We become inattentive or distracted; we daydream.

Being the efficient organ it is, the brain finds it unnecessary to constantly re-evaluate information it has already examined, so any repetitive or ready-learned stimulus passes out of conscious awareness and is tended by the unconscious mind. By this process that numbed state of mind described earlier comes about, where routine or practised functions like night-driving become almost autonomous, involving little or no conscious guidance.

Under such circumstances, with the logical and analytical faculties of the conscious 'switched off', the mind becomes open to the full flood of sensory input, knowledge, experience, and imaginative potential of the unconscious. In essence, our familiar model of  'reality' can potentially be constructed from both real and imagined sources, with the subject unable to distinguish between the two.

This is a principle very well understood by hypnotists. As many of us know, the aim of hypnotists, whether for therapeutic purposes or, in the case of stage practitioners, as a means of entertainment, is to access the subject's unconscious mind, which is highly susceptible to suggestion.

Practised hypnotists can guide a subject into trance very quickly: at first establishing a rapport, which relaxes and gains the trust of the subject, the hypnotist directs the subject's attention toward an object of fixation - a spot on the ceiling, a pocket watch, or even a non-physical item - a concept, a numerical countdown.

As the subject concentrates on this, other sensations are gradually introduced into their conscious awareness - sounds and the subject's own tactile and kinaesthetic sensations - which are continually fed back to the subject, engaging their attention on a broader sensory front, and focusing their attention inwardly. After a while, the conscious mind reaches a point of overload, where it loses attention to all the repeated stimuli it is trying to monitor, and the subject slips into trance.

At this point, the hypnotist is free to deliver suggestions which, implanted directly into the subject's unconscious mind, bypass their normal critical abilities and inhibitions, and are responded spontaneously and in an appropriate manner. In effect, the subject's mind has become a slate cleaned and prepared for the hypnotist to write new things on, or, to extend the computer analogy, a disk newly formatted and ready to receive new programming.

Of particular interest and obvious relevance to the study of apparitions is the remarkable ability of the unconscious mind, in response to suggestion, to conjure up realistic images of objects - what are known as positive hallucinations (a negative hallucination being one in which a real object in the percipient's visual field is rendered invisible to the percipient). With respect to human 'objects', the hypnotist need only suggest to the subject that they can see a human figure, defined perhaps only vaguely with regard to, say, age, sex, dress, and the subject's unconscious will furnish the detail, projecting the figure convincingly (i.e. with full parallax) into three-dimensional space, applying light and shadow, and so on. The resultant image is what appears to be a normal human being. As long as the figure stays within the expected framework of the percipient's model of reality - for instance, occluding objects as it passes in front of them, avoiding physical obstructions like tables and chairs - it could be difficult to convince the witness that it is in fact a construct of their own mind.

Viewed in another context, particularly one in which the figure is seen to do something impossible like appear or disappear spontaneously, walk through walls and other physical barriers, that same image becomes the perfect ghost.⁴

Following a personal experience in 1961, Sidney Russ, Emeritus Professor at London University, became convinced that ghosts were no more than this - illusions manufactured by the unconscious under certain conditions of trance, in his case, the near-sleep state. While his resultant theory⁵ maintained that ghosts were subjective experiences, Russ did concede that they may be more than imaginary forms, released only in the mind itself, but real images, invented by the dreaming mind and projected onto the retina in a reversal of the usual direction of communication between eye and brain found in the wakeful, conscious state. The conscious mind, stirred by the alarming content of the dream (perhaps with the sure knowledge that they are being watched, or there is something in the room with them), would awaken to find the aberrant image on the retina, and the percipient would see before them an apparition, an apparently objective form that would last as long as it would take their conscious faculties to re-coordinate and take grasp of 'true' reality. This, according to Professor Russ, was the reason why ghosts were commonly seen by persons in bed, as either a hypnagogic (one seen just before the onset of sleep) or a hypnopompic illusion (seen just before full wakefulness).

The trouble with hypnotic trance as an explanation for many hauntings, however, is that it is an artificially induced state that depends very much on deliberate guidance by a third party. In this sense, it differs in some way from the kind of mild, casual trance states into which we all occasionally lapse in everyday situations, including driving.

Since we have to rule out direct suggestion in road ghost cases, might an indirect form of suggestion produce the same effect, in the form, say, of a widely known reputation for being haunted - such as at Blue Bell Hill? What do we have here if not a perfect combination of preoccupative state (the driving experience) and suggestion (Blue Bell Hill's reputation for being haunted)?

While it cannot be said for every witness, a number of the Blue Bell Hill witnesses had some prior awareness of the Hill's reputation - which, as I commented in the first chapter, should not lead to an automatic dismissal of their accounts (on the basis that the story is so widely known in the area), but it is a point which nevertheless demands consideration.

Is it possible that witnesses, in response to an unconscious awareness of the haunting, might be creating their own apparitions in the visual field as dream-like images - something akin to a hypnagogic illusion?

This is certainly possible in view of what we have seen of the potentials of suggestion under formal hypnotic trance. The question is whether Blue Bell Hill's reputation, as ingrained and familiar as it is, is a potent enough source of inspiration for the generation of images of the same quality as those achieved by hypnotic suggestion.

Well, by itself, probably not. But the encounters at Blue Bell Hill, like a number of other hauntings, have an added dimension, in that they mostly occur late at night. For those who have wondered why most haunting events seem to take place or are most active during the night, we really need look no further than the increased sensory isolation that comes about with the fall of darkness. The night is also the time when we are feeling the most insecure and vulnerable.

If we look at the Blue Bell Hill encounters collectively (and many similar case examples from elsewhere), we find some common and telling features. Most occurred late into the night, generally between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. Common to virtually all the witnesses is their destination at the time. They were heading home, some from work, some from social events. What is probable is that each was somewhat tired, in a process of mentally 'winding down' from the day's or night's events. Significantly, the most important and impressive accounts come from lone drivers, those we would expect to be most susceptible to trance states.

Now add to the sense of fatigue the practised journey, the monotony of the night-driving field, the comfortable conditions inside the vehicle. All these factors combine to lead the driver quickly into the detached state of trance - one that, as demonstrated by the statistics attached to driving accidents, tends to be deeper than the light, daydream-like states that develop in other situations. It is a state which, if not quite comparable to that achieved by direct hypnosis, is really quite close to the next best thing: the self-hypnotized state.

In this we find the familiar sensory feedback routine, except in this case, the percipient acts as his or her own hypnotist, consciously reporting back to themselves all the sensations falling within the three main areas of experience - visual (e.g. a point or object in a room), aural (a ticking clock, the drone of passing traffic), and tactile (the weight of covers over the body, the pressure of the head on the pillow) - until a point of overload is achieved and the realities of the outside world slowly recede, leading the percipient into the relaxed, woolly state of mind that resembles very much the near-sleep condition identified by Professor Russ.

In the driving experience we find that the senses are occupied and overloaded in a similar way: the visual sense by the road ahead; hearing is frequently served by the constantly changing but harmonious input of tape of radio (or simply by the hum of the engine), and the body by the warm interior of the car and the comfort of the car seat.

Under these conditions, of the two main senses, the visual sense is often the one experiencing the least variance in input, and may therefore be the field most susceptible to modification by the brain's creative imaginings. Unconsciously (or, in cases, knowingly) acknowledging their presence at Blue Bell Hill, and triggered by that fact, what the witness sees is perhaps an externalization of the primary association or fear he/she has for that location.

The reason some accounts might appear to be similar in terms of the description of the apparition would lie with some preconceived or popularized notion of what the ghost-girl should look like, explaining to some degree, perhaps, why 'she' resembles so closely the young, light-haired and light-attired Phantom Hitch-Hiker of folklore and media fame?

In each case the encounter would end with the breaking of the hypnotic spell, most notably with the driver striking the figure and getting out of the car. Returned suddenly to a normal, alert, fully conscious state of mind, the driver finds no-one there, and no sign of damage to their vehicle.

One other feature that might find some explanation by this theory is the not infrequent and puzzling habit these phantoms have of staring into the eyes of the driver as they are run down. While this undoubtedly achieves an increase in horrific effect, particularly when accompanied by an incongruously benign expression or even a smile, could another reason the gaze of a phantom seems so penetrating be that the eyes of the percipient offer, as they say, a window and a mirror to their own soul - the unconscious recognizing itself, or at least an acknowledgement of its function in apparitional experiences? This, of course, is speculation, but to those who have experienced it, the phantom's eyes are often the most lingering and literally haunting impression of the experience.

Jung women?

Some measure of support for this might come from 'Jungian' psychology (after Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961)). Jung recognized that the unconscious of the individual often manifests itself symbolically in dreams as a figure. This figure, which Jung stressed is not an invention of the conscious mind, but a spontaneous product of the unconscious (in other words, an archetype), he termed anima or animus. Which is encountered depends on whether the dreamer is a man or a woman. For a man, the personification of his unconscious is in the form of a female figure ('anima'). For a woman, the converse is true; her unconscious is reflected as a male figure ('animus'). Without venturing too far down what can be a lengthy and convoluted path, it can be simply noted that the anima/animus is seen as the embodiment of all the complementary pyschological tendencies of the opposing gender found in a healthy, balanced psyche. It is, Jung observed, a 'psychopomp' - a mediator between the conscious and the unconscious.

Though we have to be careful not to extend it too far, the above has possible relevance beyond the point just raised, and not only to the case at Blue Bell Hill. Perhaps by it we might find some explanation why it appears that the majority of Phantom Hitch-Hiker encounters (and the closely related 'knock down' events), in folklore and 'fact', involve a female 'ghost' and a lone male driver? Inevitably, we would have to ask the question whether such events (or at least their interpretation) are predominantly a part-product of the male psyche?

Looking a little closer at the anima we see one or two other characteristics that are reflected in the habits of the Phantom Hitch-Hiker. Its positive aspects, for instance, can be found in a category we have had little reason to look at in detail: the Version D Hitch-Hiker - a class of largely beneficent characters - commonly kindly old women (sometimes taken as nuns), or angelic beings - who, as spectral travelling companions, reflect the role of the unconscious as caretaker and guide.

However, while the positive attributes of the anima - that is to say, the unconscious self - are many, the effects of its negative side can be quite detrimental, leading the individual away from reality, toward unrealistic pursuits and, in extreme cases, to their own destruction - a course, Jung noted, much more likely to be followed by men than women.

This habit of 'leading men out of their way' is one with which we are more familiar, having already noted it both of Phantom Hitch-Hikers and certain other 'night-walking' spirits in folk tradition. Likewise has the apparent desire the ghost has in some cases of exacting revenge on the motorist responsible for her death, or on motorists in general.

With regard to the latter, ready comparison can be made to similar femmes fatales in folklore and literature: to the Sirens of Greek mythology, and to the mermaids, Lorelei and the Rusalka of European, Germanic and Slavonic myth, respectively - beautiful but dangerous water nymphs who were said to lure passing men to their deaths.⁶

Interestingly, in this, its most frightening and malevolent form, the anima is sometimes depicted as an ugly witch, this 'demonic anima' clearly inviting comparison to the dark character of the crone/hag/witch of Blue Bell Hill (see Hekate on the Hill). Within the context of the Phantom Hitch-Hiker, of course, we recognize this character as the Version B. Again, it is rather interesting that one of the attributes of the Version B is in the area of prophecy, directed at both the individual and at wider, environmental issues. In the realm of the unconscious once again, we find these same powers of intuition and prognostication as attributes of the feminine inner self, the anima.

As Marie L. von Franz has pointed out, it is no coincidence that the oracles of old were priestesses.⁷ Nor should we overlook the divinatory role of female figures in other areas of tradition and literature, the classic example being, perhaps, the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Another attribute of the anima is its regard for nature. Where it is carried over into mythology and folklore, the anima is frequently represented as a spirit of nature. In some Phantom Hitch-Hiker encounters the association between the Hitch-Hiker and the environment is too strong too ignore. As we saw in Hekate on the Hill, the manifestations of both the 'ghastly old woman' and the attractive female in white closely followed a major environmental upheaval - the eruption of Mount St Helens, of which the former prophesied would be repeated a month later. More often that not, though, the warnings are more a matter of personal or local concern, which might be expected if the phantom is in some aspect a reflection of the protagonist's own psyche. ((Later in this chapter, we take a closer look at the relationship many cases of haunting appear to have to environmental disturbances. At Blue Bell Hill, it is difficult to overlook the correlation between the new outbreak of activity in 1992 and the commencement that same year of a major refurbishment of the A229/M20 junction (junction 6) at the base of the Hill).

The ghost-as-anima, I am sure, is not the whole of it with regard to Blue Bell Hill, or indeed to Phantom Hitch-Hiker and other haunting events elsewhere. However, from this perspective, it certainly provides a possible explanation as to why we see descriptively the same figures and patterns of behaviour again and again - not as the repetitive habits of certain road accident victims, doomed to carry out the same actions ad infinitum, which would reflect our need to find some kind of logical understanding for what is happening - but as symbolic carriers of messages not recognized or acknowledged by the conscious mind.

What could the message be? Could it, in this case, possibly represent a form of protest from the collective unconscious (postulated by Jung himself) at the rape of the local environment - a campaign that became increasingly hostile as the scheme progressed? Perhaps. Meanwhile, the soundest advice I can offer anyone wishing to avoid such an apparitional encounter is, in a sense, to look for it, according to the adage 'a watched pot never boils'. In many encounters, it could be said that the ghost was just about the last thing on the witness' mind at the time. The danger, if you like, lies where the unconscious mind is given the freedom and opportunity to elaborate on reality.

While all of the foregoing provides us with some means of understanding the role played by the unconscious mind and its ability to override or dupe our conscious faculties, I think we still have to concede that the hallucinatory theory of apparitions, like any single theory proposed over the years, simply cannot account for all of the reported data. It doesn't explain, for instance, why the pattern of behaviour at Blue Bell Hill should be so similar in each case, down to details that were never a feature of any newspaper account. Nor indeed, as Michael Goss posed in relation to the Phantom Hitch-Hiker habit, does it tell us why one particular mode of behaviour should be consistently displayed to the exclusion of others.

If such encounters are simply the play of the imagination on conditioned or unconsciously buried ideas, shouldn't we expect to see the majority of the encounters at Blue Bell Hill, for instance, reflect the hitch-hiking habit familiar to most from the popular story, rather than the phantom jaywalker scenario that characterizes the most recent encounters?

In the aforementioned Fortean Times article, I postulated that this apparently modern habit (I was at the time unaware of any significant history or folklore attached to the suicidal jaywalker before the advent of the motor vehicle) might be symbolic of contemporary fears, in which becoming a victim of or cause of vehicular death is a more realistic everyday fear than the prospect of encountering a spectral travelling companion. But while this seemed a reasonable, if speculative, means to conclude an article, I certainly didn't feel that in this lay the answer to these experiences. There is, as we have seen, undoubtedly a symbolism that can be drawn from the actions and descriptions of these apparitions, but there is something deeper going on here than simple mental trickery.

With regard to the purely hallucinatory case, shouldn't we be concerned at the ease at which such events appear to occur and, more importantly, where they occur - on our roads? While in Maurice Goodenough's case, it clearly stretches credibility to suppose that he actually knocked over and then carried to the roadside a phantom girl, the alternative is somehow more worrisome: that, in response to little more than rumour, an individual is capable of spontaneously inventing and sustaining an hallucinatory event so convincing that he would race off to involve the authorities in his delusion, or drive miles out of his or her way to drop off a non-existent passenger.

In his reply to the suggestion made to him by Dr Susan Blackmore in the BBC's Out of This World programme that he may have hallucinated the ghost, Ian Sharpe said: "I couldn't be a coach driver if I hallucinated."⁸ While we have seen that people can indeed be made to hallucinate to a very convincing degree, Ian raises a very pertinent point. If such experiences can befall even very experienced drivers like him, the roads are a lot less safe than we suppose. This being the case, we might be grateful for the fact that these apparitional events are not more common than they are, their failure to appear randomly on our roads laying with the absence, in most cases, of an appropriate trigger to which the unconscious mind of the percipient might respond.

Standing more firmly in the way of the hallucinatory theory as a wholesale explanation for apparitions are those cases which the SPR, in its original study, termed 'veridical' - that is, those events for which there were various kinds of independent corroboration. These might take the form of multiple witness events or, in haunting cases, instances in which the same figure had been reliably sighted at the same locality on a number of occasions, and by different persons (preferably individuals who had absolutely no prior awareness of the case).⁹

While some criticism has been levelled at collective sightings, with respect to mass hallucination, or some kind of 'psychic contagion' that spreads between witnesses either during or after a given experience, these accounts are perhaps more persuasive in terms of suggesting a truly objective phenomenon as we understand it, particularly where, as at Blue Bell Hill, they find further support through overlapping circumstantial details such as locations and timings.

At Blue Bell Hill we have no less than five shared experiences, to both the old woman and the young girl, the most impressive being, according to the criteria just outlined, the experiences of the Maidens’ and Rayburns’ experiences with the old woman at precisely the same location, just one night apart.

All of this reinforces the idea that what is active in many cases is more than individuals' imaginations, but something associated with or generated by the haunted locality itself.

Why 1992-3? Why, after years of rumour and dubious press reports, should the Blue Bell Hill phenomenon have chosen this particular time to reappear, and in so varied and dramatic a fashion? In view of the characteristic randomness and unpredictability of such events, posing such a question might appear a waste of time. If the events of Blue Bell Hill were real, they were bound to recur at some time. 1992 was perhaps as good a time as any. Or was it?

1992 was significant for Blue Bell Hill for reasons other than the reappearance of its ghost. It was also the year that saw the largest construction project there since the present dual carriageway was built over it in 1971-72. At that time John Huffam of the Evening Post idly speculated that the ghost-girl's latest rumoured appearances might be a result of the massive earth-moving programme antagonizing the spirit world. With the new works at the base of the Hill (a major refurbishment of junction 6 of the A229 in conjunction with the widening of the M20) begun in the spring of 1992, and well under way by November of that year, it was difficult to overlook the same correlation, and conclude that there was, perhaps, a connection after all.

Alterations in the environment are a well known factor in the triggering (or termination) of hauntings. When amendments made in the strictly localized surroundings of the home set off a haunting, the activity is often taken to reflect the displeasure the changes have provoked in a former resident. When alterations are made in the wider environment, however, we are more likely to look to the disturbance of places of burial for the cause.

At Blue Bell Hill the haunting has been linked (at least by one writer) to the desecration caused to ancient burial places, destroyed or over-built by the A229 modernization - despite the fact that much of the activity clearly pre-dating the construction.

Similarly, the appearances of a classically white, vaporous form (dubbed 'Casper') in the woods and along the shoreline of 'Ghost Island' within the Chippewa Flowage, near Hayward, Sawyer County, northern Wisconsin (USA), have been attributed to the flooding of the island's historic cemetery when the Chippewa river was dammed in the 1920s. And, in 1987, disturbances apparently sparked off by the construction of a by-pass across the hills north of the Yorkshire village of Stocksbridge were quickly put down to the road having disturbed the resting place of a monk, the identification of which undoubtedly arising from sightings of a menacing hooded figure at the site.

The Stocksbridge case bears a relationship to Blue Bell Hill beyond the fact that it appears to be another example of a hilltop haunting triggered by road construction. Some of the features of the haunting are very similar, both descriptively and in character. We don't, as far as I am aware, have any reports of a phantom female, young or old, but the description given by two on duty police officers of a figure that appeared beside their vehicle certainly put me in mind of Blue Bell Hill's maleficent old woman:

On 12 September 1987, five days after two security watchmen had been frightened off the construction site by a white-hooded figure standing on an uncompleted bridge section, PC Dick Ellis and Special Constable John Beet decided, mainly out of curiosity, to visit the site. Unknowingly, they chose what we have seen from the encounters at Blue Bell Hill and other similar events, is the best - or worst - time (depending on one's point of view) to pay a visit. Arriving around midnight, which was also the time the security men's experiences had taken place, and after checking the site, the men decided to wait in the car for a further ten minutes or so before continuing their patrol. Suddenly, and accompanied by a paralyzing feeling of coldness and helplessness, a figure appeared beside the driver's window, only to vanish instantly and reappear on the passenger side. From the description, Beet, who obtained the only clear view of the upper part of the figure, might have been describing Blue Bell Hill's ghostly witch, even using the same word - 'wizened' - to describe its features, which included a pointed noise and piercing eyes.

Alarmed, but jumping out of the vehicle, PC Ellis found no trace of anyone or anything to account for the experience, following which they withdrew a little way before radioing for assistance. At this point, something took place that also has its parallels with Blue Bell Hill. A loud bang came from the back of the car, followed, as the pair quickly got out, by a series of thuds and crashes that sounded like an angry attack on the vehicle. Later inspection, however, revealed no damage or marks on the vehicle.¹⁰

The encounters with the hooded figure at Stocksbridge gave rise, as they almost inevitably do when this type of apparition is reported, to its identification as a monk. It is natural, when we are faced with spontaneous and inexplicable events such as these, to look for some kind of logical framework into which to fit them. It therefore isn't surprising that someone should consequently have come up with an 'explanation' in the form of a vague story about a monk who, having grown disillusioned with the monastic life, left, and was later buried in unconsecrated ground which the by-pass eventually disturbed.

The trouble is - as we have seen at Blue Bell Hill - such hurriedly arrived at and romanticized 'solutions' can often mask what little evidential/historical support there is. They can also lead us to play down or ignore other features of the reported case. For example, of the four television treatments of the Blue Bell Hill case following the rash of encounters in 1992-3, three failed even to mention the old woman, while the third only did so very briefly.¹¹ There is the need, of course, particularly in short television features, to avoid confusing or overwhelming the audience, but it is often the case (and, from the media's point of view, understandable) that the story with the greatest potential to captivate and entertain will find preference. At Blue Bell Hill, this means that despite the fact that the sightings of the old woman are every bit as impressive as those of the ghost-girl, the latter, by virtue of their attachment to the romanticized tragedy of the 1965 crash are bound to win out almost every time.

At Stocksbridge, the initial sighting of the two security men, which was of a group of children in old-fashioned clothes dancing in 'ring-o'-roses' fashion beneath the struts of an electricity pylon, takes a back seat to the sightings of the 'monk', which they were to encounter very shortly afterward. The presence of the children, who vanished before the men's eyes, was later conveniently accounted for by a story that claimed that a cart carrying a number of children overturned near the spot some 150 years before, killing them all. The question is: what could have prompted their appearance? The story lacks the kind of logical motive found in the disturbance of a grave site, and so, perhaps, is more readily overlooked.

The other reason for mentioning the children is that when I first read about it, I was immediately put in mind of another 'incident' at Blue Bell Hill. This is one I hesitate to repeat because it remains unconfirmed, but considering its source, ASSAP investigator David Thomas, I am willing to concede some possibility of it being a true account. Thomas told me that in the summer of 1994 a group (whether they belonged to or were affiliated to ASSAP I do not know) contacted him in the hope that he could direct them to an active case that they might be able investigate. He directed them to Blue Bell Hill, where they subsequently carried out a night vigil. As far as I know, the night went without incident, apart from, that is, a sighting of a young girl apparently seen dancing around the stones of Kit's Coty. Quite how the girl was seen and identified as such from some distance away and in the dark is another question, but there it is.

Similar accounts come from elsewhere. At 1.30 a.m. on 9 August 1977 a Hull police officer, David Swift, investigated a strange bank of fog or vapour on a playing field in Stonebridge Avenue. There, he found three figures dancing, hands high, in the mist which vanished as he approached them.¹²

Meaningless or ridiculous as these accounts seem in isolation, together they begin to add up to more. Those readers versed in folklore may already have connected these events with the fairy folk's - the little people's - habit of dancing hand in hand in circles, particularly at stone age sites. In one account recorded by the American Walter Evans Wentz at the turn of the century, the 'fair-folk' sometimes witnessed around a hilltop cromlech appeared as little children in clothes resembling soldiers' outfits.¹³

The final parallel between Stocksbridge and Blue Bell Hill is also the clearest. The timing of the incident may also be significant - July 1992. David and Judi Simpson were returning home one Friday evening after visiting Judi's parents. As they crossed the bridge over the top of the bypass they both noticed off to their left a grey, featureless apparition apparently running across the field towards them. Only it seemed to be running above ground level, and its arms and legs were flailing about in an uncoordinated manner. It came up the embankment, across the road and disappeared into the car. Mrs Simpson braked quickly, but there was no sense of a collision.¹⁴

What sense, if any, can we make out of the overlap between the two cases? It seems absurd to think that the disturbance of a relatively small area of land in each case could rake up such a number and variety of apparitions, let alone for there to be the kind of similarity we see between them. All we can say, I think, is that the reported phenomena seem in some way to be symptomatic of the nature or scale of the physical disturbance itself.

But, then, if true, shouldn't we expect to see similar cases wherever and whenever extensive road-works and excavations are going on? To a limited extent this is true. Some places, particularly those of a permanent or semi-permanent nature such as quarry sites, have histories of strange phenomena attached to them. But, as a rule, most work proceeds uneventfully.

So what is it about places like Stocksbridge and Blue Bell Hill that sets them apart?

In trying to answer this question, I was led me to the work of a few established and respected workers who had looked at this very aspect, and whose findings have attracted growing interest in recent years. The work of one in particular, Earth mysteries researcher Paul Devereux, contains much I believe is relevant to Blue Bell Hill and many similar cases.

In 1965 the American researcher and former journalist, John A. Keel coined a phrase that soon gained a place of prominence in the lexicon of the paranormal: window area. Keel made the astute observation that relatively small areas all over the world seemed particularly prone to the occurrence of anomalous phenomena, in some cases, as attested by record and legend, extending back for centuries. This concentration of activity, he felt, was linked to certain geological and geomorphological factors. They were areas often characterized, for instance, by concentrated faulting or geomagnetic anomalies (areas of high magnetic potential, such as metallic ore bodies). At given times, the electromagnetic conditions associated with these features allow the area to which they belong to act as ‘gateways’ to forces intent on entering our our level of reality. The prime example of such 'intruding' forces were UFOs, which often seem to originate or hover around these sites. But included in this gamut of invading entities were ghosts, fairies, and the angels and devils of old. For Keel, these were all expressions of fundamentally the same phenomenon, one that exists to sow bedevilment and confusion amongst human beings, which it achieves through its ability to tailor its actions and appearance according to the belief structure or expectations of the day.

Whatever one may make of Keel's conclusions¹⁵, there can be little dispute over his observations. Later work, notably that of Canadian scientists Michael Persinger and Gyslaine Lafrenière, who in the first instance applied a statistical analysis to the distribution of paranormal events, has tended to confirm Keel's 'window' concept. And Keel was probably one of the first to take note of the fact that different kinds of phenomena, for example, UFOs and poltergeist activity, showed strong correlations in terms of their timing and intensity, and were, therefore, likely to be related in some manner.¹⁶

Although he came close in a number of respects, what Keel apparently did not consider was that the phenomena he described might have a natural origin, albeit an exotic one. It is easy to appreciate why he may have rejected the idea. What was compelling to him were the minutiae exhibited by the phenomenon, all the little details that correlated between different cases and which together added up to something more, something that had all the apparent hallmarks of intelligence and design. One that is worth mentioning briefly here is the preference a number of ghosts (all male in the examples given by Keel in his book Strange Creatures from Time and Space¹⁷ appear to have for check-patterned shirts. This was also a descriptive feature given by one witness of the Phantom Hitch-Hiker of Nunney Lane. We might also consider for comparison the tartan shawl or skirt, or kilt (depending on the account) worn by the Blue Bell Hill hag. Such details and their correlation are difficult to account for by theories arguing in favour of a purely natural phenomenon.

Nevertheless, there is still much that might be explained in this manner, as the aforementioned Persinger and Lafrenière put forward in their work in the late 1970s. The theory¹⁸, laid out in their Space-Time Transients and Unusual Events¹⁹ is, according to British researcher Paul Devereux, the most satisfactory one that exists. Analyzing UFO and other anomalous events across the USA, they found confirmation of the geographical clustering described by Keel's 'window' concept, and a calendrial distribution that compared very well to foreign studies.

While the Canadian researchers, like Keel, were looking largely at UFO data, the monthly patterns that emerged are worth detailing, and will in, some respects, be familiar. Peaks detailing sightings occurred in April, and in July, August and September. The majority of UFO 'landings', however - events we might regard as the most 'intense' aspect of the phenomenon - occurred, rather interestingly, in November, whose relevance to the events at Blue Bell Hill I needn't remind the reader.²⁰

Interestingly, independent studies have also shown that such events tend to cluster around the same time of night, with the largest peak at around 10 p.m. to 10.30 p.m., with a smaller one in the early hours, towards 3 a.m.²¹

Persinger and Lafrenière's theory was, in the first instance, based on an assumption: that the respective phenomenon were based on a recognizable form of energy, and that energy was of natural (i.e. environmentally produced) origin. Some of the luminous displays that were UFO events were obviously an energetic phenomenon. The question was: what was capable of providing this energy, and how was it localized? The researchers considered a number of possible sources, including thunderstorms, tectonic processes, even solar and lunar influences. When they began to look for correlations, it was the tectonic mechanism that emerged as the most prominent candidate.

The key to this correlation was seismic electricity. It is widely known that huge amounts of mechanical energy can build up in the Earth's crust, an energy and destructive force of which we are made acutely aware when it is released catastrophically in the form of earthquakes. What is not so well known is that highly stressed rocks are also capable of generating significant quantities of electrical energy. Values are naturally difficult to estimate, since this very much depends on the level of stress involved and the piezoelectric characteristics of the rocks in question, but up to a 100,000 volts per square metre has been estimated.²²

What results, according to Persinger and Lafrenière, is that a transient electromagnetic field - an 'electric column' - develops above the stress zone, particularly in the vicinity of faults and/or mineral concentrations in the crust. The 'normal' radius of such a column may be between three and thirty metres but could feasibly attain a radius of up to a mile. Its height above the surface, again, would vary according to the scale and intensity of the stimulus, and the characteristics of the rocks involved, but it has been postulated that in some cases it could reach as high as the ionosphere (c. 50 miles above the Earth's surface).

At given strengths, this field may be capable of ionizing the air above it into visible 'luminosities' (dubbed earth lights²³) which, suspended in the otherwise invisible column, would appear to hover; or, if the field itself is dynamic and variable, to move along lines of fracture or other paths of least resistance - to 'fly' - giving rise to reports of glowing UFOs. These events are transient in nature, they argue, simply because the forces themselves are transient. Luminosities and other effects of the field, such as the possible effect on biological systems, can only exist during periods when the stress itself is present. With its relief, most obviously with an earthquake, the column and the activity would disappear, to start over with the onset of a new phase of strain. The cyclicity of phenomena in these areas is therefore an important aspect to bear in mind.

Luminous effects of various kinds, including aerial glows, streamers, unusual lightning displays, and discrete balls of light, have long been observed in relation to earthquake activity, and have naturally given rise to their share of legends and folk tales. In the modern day, the impact of so-called 'earthquake weather' is demonstrated by the interference with radio transmissions that is sometimes noted just prior to the quake itself, resulting from the disruption of the ionosphere (against which radio signals are 'bounced'). And serious attention is now being given to other areas, such as the odd behaviour of animals that has been noted before the onset of earthquakes. While these effects have obvious value in the warning against earthquakes, they also demonstrate something that is only beginning to be properly appreciated: that while we might tend to regard the Earth as a fairly inert, homogenous mass, it is in fact a very dynamic system, with its various components, land, sea and atmosphere interacting in unusual and surprising ways.

The reader may recall the strange Version B Phantom Hitch-Hiker that took to the roads in the state of Washington following the eruption of Mount St Helens in May 1980 (see Hekate on the Hill). In the months leading up to the eruption, however, there were reports of luminous displays (which included an 'eerie blue lightning' observed by two geologists that arced between the volcano's main vent and a subsidiary one that had developed during the activity) and other anomalous phenomena, which were collected by a co-worker and associate of Michael Persinger's, Lynn Henry, who was in the area at the time.²⁴

The events associated with the Mount St Helens episode are typical of a three-part pattern of strain-related effects that emerged from Persinger's data: during phase one, in the initial build-up of strain, six months or more before the event (eruption or quake) straightforward electromagnetic effects predominate. Interference takes place with electronic equipment and power failures are more common. Various effects on human beings are also noted, which we will look at in a little more detail later. With increased levels of strain, phase two is entered, which is characterized by the appearance of luminosities in close proximity to the strain which, in the modern day, are almost certainly likely to be interpreted as UFOs. If the system holds out, and the strain increases further, there is a tendency for the luminosities to disappear - at which point, in the words of Persinger, 'the very unusual things begin to occur.'²⁵

On first reading of the phase-one electromagnetic effects, I was put in mind of a few incidents that had been reported to me regarding vehicular failures within the 'haunted zone' at Blue Bell Hill in the year before November 1992: and other cases in the literature where such failures have accompanied the appearance of anomalous phenomena on our roads (which include, for instance, certain alien abduction cases).

Blue Bell Hill is not renowned for its earthquakes. Nor, I suspect, are many of the locations cited in other cases. An important point of the Tectonic Strain Theory, which Persinger and Lafrenière are at pains to point out, is that earthquakes themselves are not necessary to the production of light and other phenomena. Major tectonic events provide the most obvious, most energetic sources giving rise to localized electromagnetic conditions, but the associated phenomena need not necessarily be concentrated in earthquake-prone areas. Conditions of strain may extend over relatively great distances, into what are regarded as tectonically inactive or stable regions, where it is peculiarities in the local environment - remnant faulting, mineralisation, hilly or mountainous terrain, areas of high resistivity - to name a few, that provide the focus for the development of the electric column and the associated phenomena. Where tectonic pressures are applied and relaxed non-catastrophically over relatively long periods, giving very low level or no seismicity, such activity might occur in some places for little apparent reason.

Strain can develop in the crust by mechanisms other than purely tectonic. The prime example is also one that, because of its familiarity, is easily overlooked: Earth's Moon. We are all familiar with the effect the Moon has on the seas and oceans. Less do we appreciate that the Moon (and to a slightly lesser degree (because of its distance), the Sun) also exerts a tidal pull on the land. The centre of mass of the Earth-Moon system - its barycentre - lies some 1000 kilometres inside the Earth itself. As the Moon orbits, it generates huge mechanical stresses within the body of our planet, which naturally contribute to tectonic forces, but which more importantly, perhaps, carry tensional forces in cyclic patterns across the surface of the whole planet.²⁶

Overlying this, there are still other factors, such as the Earth's own geomagnetic field - the invisible lines of magnetic force that flow through and thoroughly penetrate our environment, including ourselves. It is well known that the Earth's magnetic field can be modified locally by surface or subsurface features. Aerial magnetic surveys, for instance, can help to identify buried mineral deposits, which have obvious economic value. And, in turn, the geomagnetic field of the Earth and its meteorological systems can be influenced by variations in the Sun's own magnetic field. In addition to the 'solar wind', the ever-present stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, occasional rapid, large-scale changes in the Sun’s magnetic field can result in the ejection of massive, fast-moving clouds of charged plasma (termed coronal mass ejections (or CMEs) which, should they intercept the Earth, can have a significant impact on our planet’s own magnetic field, energizing the system to degrees where power lines and electronics/communications systems can be overloaded - as was the case in March 1989 when such an event shut down a Canadian electrical power grid causing six million people to lose power for nine hours.

Taking into account what Paul Devereux has called a 'sea of forces' playing about, within, and across the surface of the Earth, it isn't so difficult to appreciate the idea that, from the perspective of the whole planet, minute points and features at its surface might tend to act as foci for these transient energies, which occasionally reach potentials capable of 'sparking' earth light displays and other unusual phenomena. It might also give us some basis for understanding how significant alterations in the environment (particularly those prone to such phenomena), and therefore to local electromagnetic conditions, could result in fresh outbreaks of activity, à la Blue Bell Hill and Stocksbridge.

If we zoom in to examine one of these window areas, what characteristics are we likely to note? The first, which is responsible for drawing our attention to them in the first place, is a probable history of strange phenomena, particularly light phenomena, which are very often reflected in folk tales and legends attached to the area. Famous earth light phenomena such as the 'Bodhisattva Lights' on the North China Plain, and the 'Marfa Lights', which are said to manifest regularly over the prairie near the small town of Marfa, Texas, have attracted religious and ghostly connotations, respectively. In both cases, the variably-coloured balls of fire that float lazily across the terrain are said to represent spiritual entities; in the former, enlightened souls that have passed the ten stages to spiritual perfection, and in the latter, as the spirits of the dead - 'ghost lights' or 'spooklights', traditionally recognized as such by both Indians and white settlers alike, although the latter have attached a variety of other meanings to them as well, such as guardian lights of hidden treasure, which, Paul Devereux has noted, is in line with certain Old World traditions.²⁷ In other places and other times, this same light phenomena has been interpreted in terms of fiery dragons, fairies, and, in the modern day, as UFOs.

From a large body of data, it is possible to identify a number of physical characteristics that appear conducive to the appearance of light phenomena, and for this were turn largely to the work of British author and researcher Paul Devereux who, with geochemist Paul McCartney, and a few other researchers, has done much to give this particular subject an air of respectability.²⁸ A few of these characteristics were noted earlier. High on the list is geological faulting, studies of which in relation to earth lights show a high degree of correlation. Lights also seem to haunt areas of high mineralisation. They show an affinity for hilltops, rocky ridges and mountain peaks, and other sharp projections such as pylons, transmitter towers, and other metallic constructions. They regular occur near power lines, along roads (where, Devereux adds, they might be attracted to metallic vehicles) and railway lines, and near bodies of water, still (lakes) and running (streams and rivers). They also like to haunt caves, quarries, and mines. Persons coming into close proximity to them have reported buzzing, humming or whistling sounds.²⁹

All of these affinities are consistent with an electromagnetic source for the phenomena. Comparisons have naturally been made between these terrain-related lights and so-called 'ball lightning' - that similarly rare, exotic, but marginally accepted by-product of some thunderstorms. As I indicated earlier, modern instrumentation has enabled us to study the interactions that occur between the land and the atmosphere. For instance, when the negatively-charged base of a thundercloud passes over the land, positively charged ions are sucked out of the ground. A person standing in the area is likely to feel the effects of the build-up of static electricity as a literally hair-raising event. Most people are aware of the dangers posed to them if caught in the open, particularly if they are the tallest object in the area. A fairly recent discovery, captured in a few rare instances on film, highlights how objects come to be 'selected' by lightning strikes: a number of potential strike subjects actually extend what has become known as a 'positive streamer' towards the descending 'stepped leader' (the lightning bolt's 'pathfinder'). This, a weakly luminous filament of positively charged particles up to a few metres in length, in effect advertises itself as a strike candidate. If one succeeds in attracting the bolt (which all happens in a fraction of a second), a circuit link is immediately established between sky and ground, and the lightning's return stroke discharges its massive 10,000 ampere charge to the ground at a third of the speed of light.

One theory of earth lights is that this process works more or less in reverse, with the Earth, under certain conditions, discharging energies into the air. Most often, during a lightning strike, little resistance is offered by the ground, and the charge spreads out in all directions and is absorbed by the rocks and earth. Under the conditions postulated by Persinger, where electromagnetism is sustained and finely focused within certain areas, it can be appreciated that certain features of the land, its geology and structure, acting as foci, could precipitate the 'sparking' of earth lights.

One possible mechanism that has been covered by Devereux, himself referring to the work of Persinger and German biophysicist Helmut Tributsch, involves the presence of water as a contributor to resistivity of underground minerals, particularly in conjunction with fractures and fissures in the rocks. Tributsch's idea is that earth currents leaping across air-filled fractures into thin linings of water could result in a glowing discharge.³⁰ Whether we can extend this idea to larger fractures and air-filled spaces in the rock - caverns, and even artificially produced discontinuities such as mines and tunnels, is open to question. The fact that these appear to be haunted by light-form and, I have to add, ghostly phenomena, suggests that it can. While on this subject, it is for a moment worth casting our minds back to Professor Kirk (see Hekate on the Hill) who, amongst other characteristics he attributed to the 'elementals' he described, made note of their cave-dwelling habits and their ability to pass unimpeded through the interstices of the rocks. Food for thought.

Large underground cavities, particularly the poorly-supported excavations made by humans, add additional points of stress into the local environment, something which is true also of quarry workings and unsupported cuttings and cliff faces, all of which we can postulate as providing foci for the generation of light phenomena.

The association with water is extended by evidence that greater degrees of ionization occur around water courses, particularly active bodies such as the sea or rivers. Arguments exist to the effect that contributes additional energy to the system, which is true. However, could it also be that the reason some light displays are found in these areas is that the ionization sets up conditions at the ground-air interface conducive to the emergence of light-forms at these points?

Is Blue Bell Hill and its environs a window area? Perhaps. It certainly qualifies in a number of respects. The most obvious characteristic is, of course, the hilltop location itself. But added to this we have:

Researchers like Paul Devereux believe that some sites may have served a different purpose still, as permanent markers for places identified as and revered for possessing special energetic properties. Such sites show the same kinds of correlations with unusual phenomena as fault zones, as reflected by the stories and traditions attached to them. In Britain and Ireland, and much of Europe, these sites were frequently associated with fairies and other elementals, a commonly reported phenomenon being 'fairy lights'. Such lights are subject of eyewitness accounts even in the modern day, the difference being that they are likely to attract a different interpretation.

Another feature of fairylore in association with some megalithic sites is that of time dilation, of persons dancing with the fairy folk later only to find that days, weeks, or years had elapsed in the outside world. We know today that exposure to weak electromagnetic fields can affect the electrical processes of the brain, giving rise to a variety of responses, including fogginess, detachment from time, amnesia, and in some cases, to feelings of dread, fear, to feelings of presence - that someone or something unseen is present, and even to visual or auditory phenomena (i.e. hallucinatory) - all of which have obvious repercussions for the study of paranormal phenomena. If, as we suppose, the peoples responsible for building these sites were far more in touch with the land and its nuances than us, it would, as Devereux suggests, seem natural that they would be marked and used for ritualistic and burial practices.

While their strongest association is with aerial light phenomena, Devereux also notes that such places often support reputations as places of apparitions (his 'Spook Road' associated with the Rollright Stones comes to mind³²), and it is here we find the greatest relevance of his observations.

So far purposefully overlooked is that outbreaks of earth lights are sometimes accompanied by a low-level or ground-based phenomenon: roughly human-sized gaseous columns that have tended to find interpretation as 'white lady' or 'black monk' ghosts, depending on whether seen at night or during the day.³³ Devereux gives numerous examples of this phenomenon, and it is indeed easy to see how these short-lived 'vaporous luminescent columns' drifting about the countryside or perched beacon-like on the crests of hills late at night (when, of course, they are most visible) might be seen as 'shining spectres'.

Of particular interest are those instances where the 'figure' is seen in closer proximity, in or at the side of the road. One example worth repeating is that centred on Castle Hill, a mound at Newton-le-Willows, in Lancashire, which involves a six-feet tall 'white shape' that is usually seen flitting, gliding, or stationary on a nearby road. Apparently, it has been interpreted at various times as both white lady and monk (dependent, again, on whether it is seen during the day or at night), with some people claiming to see a figure detailed within the light. Significantly, its appearance is said to have been the cause of at least one traffic accident.³⁴

Other examples describe such columns as emerging from hedgerows ahead of vehicles, in one case floating ahead of a van for a while before disappearing into a gateway.³⁵ And in another, at a location in Leicestershire reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a nun, a bus stopped one night for a white figure only to find it was the 'ghost' - a softly glowing misty column of light that drifted off across a field.³⁶

It doesn't take much to see the comparisons with the behaviour and appearance with Blue Bell Hill's girl in white. Devereux points out that, like airborn light-forms, which are most likely to be interpreted as UFOs, these columns tend to favour certain focal points in the landscape, hilltops being a favourite, but also certain artificial structures - an iron bridge in one example.³⁷ Again, it is worth noting the relative clustering of events at Blue Bell Hill in the region of the cliff-section, which includes a metal and concrete footbridge, and the usual array of tubular metal signposts.

In Ian Sharpe's case, the girl was seen standing in the outer lane of the carriageway, between the metal crash barrier (newly erected in 1989) and the signpost on the nearside marking the Aylesford turn-off. Now, I would not presume to tell Ian (or any witness, at Blue Bell Hill or elsewhere) what he saw. The very detailed figure he described under good observational conditions begs an explanation beyond what is presented here, but these features are noteworthy all the same, and we shouldn't overlook their possible relevance.

Within the context of an electromagnetic phenomenon, it is tempting to view these forms popping out of the cliff face, or rising out of the ground in the fashion noted above and, depending on the conditions at the time, to either remain static, or, if it can gather sufficient stability, to drift off along whatever plane of weakness may have facilitated their birth in the first place.³⁸

At Blue Bell Hill, the predominant trend of such planes is likely to be roughly east-west, in accordance with the fold-axis of the so-called Wealden Anticline, and, in most cases, at right-angles to (i.e. across) the road. Such might serve as an explanation for 'spirit paths' - linear tracks supposedly used by spirits to traverse the landscape. Again, it is easy to appreciate that with the approach of a vehicle, with its metal skin and own localized electromagnetic field, the column would be attracted to it, an effect that Devereux suggests would imbue it with a definite sense of purposefulness and intelligence. We have to ask whether it is possible that a motorist might interpret such an action as a figure running out in front of or towards their vehicle, a figure which then not unexpectedly cannot be found?

We have already looked at the possible influence that foreknowledge or expectation can play in the interpretation of such events, or even to the memory of them - a process of unconscious elaboration known as confabulation. If the witness fails to interpret what they saw, then others, particularly the media, can be relied upon to do so.

Maurice Goodenough's encounter in 1974 hints at another feature in parallel with these vaguely human gaseous columns. From Tom Harber's interview with Maurice Goodenough we learn that the girl had seemed to spring out of the earth from beneath the car (although this admittedly conflicts with Ted Wright's comments to the effect that the girl was thrown over the vehicle - an impression that may have been gained by finding the 'girl' in the road behind the car?). In this instance, we can speculate that the presence of the car itself may have been the catalyst to the encounter, having the effect of drawing up the column before it.

The comments of others regarding the disappearances of the girl are also noteworthy, in particular those of Ian Sharpe and Chris Dawkins, who both remarked on the unnatural way the girl seemed to sink beneath their car rather than being thrown over the top or to the side. The impression given to Dawkins was that it was as if the ground had moved apart to swallow her up.

The outstanding problem with this whole idea, though, is how these misty columns of ionized gas, or whatever they are, could really be mistaken for detailed human figures, even when viewed so fleetingly. Confabulation will play some part, but can it possibly be extended to the likes of Maurice Goodenough's close contact, or to Phantom Hitch-Hiker encounters?

The possibility, at least, is catered for in Persinger's and Lafrenière's theory, which suggests that such very vivid and detailed experiences might result from close encounters with earth light sources.

As a neurobiologist, Michael Persinger's particular area of interest lies with the effects such electrical fields might have on the human brain, in particular in relation to the induction of temporal lobe seizures. Persinger has managed to reproduce some of the effects described earlier - feelings of unease and so forth - in the laboratory by artificially stimulating the temporal-proprietal area of the brain with mild, but complex electromagnetic fields applied via selenoids set in an experimental helmet. What he is developing is, in effect, an electromagnetic language for communicating with the brain, one that has the potential to create more convincing and forceful sensations than those made by suggestions to the unconscious.

While the electromagnetic fields applied in the laboratory are necessarily mild to avoid the risk of seizure, what would the effect be on a person so susceptible in coming into close proximity with the kind of field postulated to accompany visible luminosities? The result, Persinger believes, could be the creation of a temporary state of neuronal misfiring that could result in the incorporation of elements of memory and fantasy into the waking moment [as postulated in Mind Games?], and which would continue for a short time after exposure, for as long as the instability lasted. The result would be that the witness experiences and remembers an elaborate event which was real only so far as its contextual framework, and the fact that they encountered an exotic phenomenon of nature.

Can this explain Goodenough's sustained experience - how he believed he had carried the injured girl to the roadside, making her comfortable, before driving off to seek help? How motorists can apparenty pick up hitch-hikers who subsequently vanish from their cars, not as a result of the ionized column somehow hitching a ride with them, but as a result of temporary exposure to an electromagnetic source that makes them believe they have done so - until a little way along the road, when the effect wears off and the passenger is found to have inexplicably vanished?

With regard to the dark and menacing figures that includes Blue Bell Hill's 'hag': can we relate these to reports of dark shapes or clouds associated with earth light areas, and to the feelings of evil and terror that might be involuntary responses to particular frequencies or field strengths? And to the whistling or humming sounds reported by some, which sound so much like the hissing noises made by the witch figure?

One example given by Devereux is found at a location mentioned above in relation to devil places names - the Devil's Elbow - in an account given by an 85-year-old man, John Davies, whose motorcycle ride one moonlit night was interrupted when his path was blocked on a bend by a huge black shape resembling a slug that crossed the road and disappeared.⁴⁹ 

Is it remotely possible that such dark energy forms might form the inspiration for the more sinister encounters involving hissing witches and shrieking boggarts?

One other I came across, in Jennifer Westwood's Albion, is the story (collected in 1906) of 'a farmer' who met a 'bullbeggar' at Creech Hill, Somerset. Making his way home late one night, the man came across a figure lying in the road. Going to its aid, it suddenly raised itself up and chased him all the way home, where his family witnessed it cavorting up the hill, shrieking with laughter.³⁹

Folklore, yes. But the finale of this account, like the boggart of Longridge, is eerily reminiscent of the spine-chilling conclusion to Anton Le Grange's experience with the Phantom Hitch-Hiker at Uniondale, South Africa. Whatever is going on, as illogical and random as it appears to be, this phenomenon clearly harbours a consistency, and has been happening to human beings the world over for a long, long time. 

It is difficult, of course, to take such accounts at face value. It is almost as difficult to accept exotic substitute explanations like the earth lights hypothesis. But then again, what possible alternative do we have when faced with reliable witness testimonies and so many like encounters from around the world? So many people cannot be imagining the same thing, surely, and for no reason? It therefore makes some kind of sense to conclude that the inspiration is something objective, something possibly associated with little-known processes of nature, whose interaction with the electrical functions of the human brain might have the effect of dredging up certain archetypal images stored deep in the unconscious.

Sunspots & Earthspots

This section began with the proposal that the events of 1992 at Blue Bell Hill, and at other places like Stocksbridge, were possibly related or responses to disturbances in the local environment. But is this the whole of it? Should we expect further anomalous activity in these areas whenever work of similar scale takes place in the future? Perhaps. But there is one other factor of possible relevance to the events of 1992 that we have so far only touched upon: the influence of the Sun's magnetic cycle on the Earth.

A number of researchers have noted the correlations between increases in UFO activity and rises in the Earth's geomagnetism, which in turn is directly influenced by the Sun.

Another pioneer of earth light investigation, Swedish researcher Ragnar Forshufvud found that these apparent rises in activity correlated well with times of sunspot (or solar) maxima - the peaks in the roughly 11.1-year magnetic cycle of the Sun, which is indicated by increased densities of sunspots on its surface. Sunspots, which are relatively cooler (and thus, darker), transient features of the Sun's photosphere, are localized regions characterized by intense looping magnetic fields. They are among the most obvious of the Sun's active regions, together with solar flares, faculae and prominences, which indicate periods of increased activity and energy output from our parent star. As I mentioned earlier, Earth-impacting CME events can be highly disruptive to natural and artificial systems on Earth. During solar maximum, the Sun may emit more than one CME per day. Considering the increase in UFO activity at such times, it seemed reasonable to suppose that there would be a corresponding increase in other kinds of paranormal occurrences.⁴⁰