Paisley, UK: Ghost hunt in Paisley

From the Paisley Daily Express: Ghost hunt in Paisley

I’VE never felt comfortable in the dark.

Perhaps I’m still spooked by the creepy man I spotted lurking in the shadows outside my old house when I was six years old or maybe my mum is to blame because she didn’t keep those Nightmare on Elm Street video tapes in a locked drawer.

Whatever the reason, when the lights go out, I’m always suspicious of what’s making that noise.

Many a party has taken place at which the dreaded “how can you be scared of the dark?” question has been popped, leaving me squirming while others present are allowed absurd, yet seemingly acceptable, fears of their own, such as spiders or even a trip to the dentist.

I’ve always argued that my discomfort with the dark has nothing to do with tall tales about ghouls or haunted homes.

So, when the Scottish and British Paranormal Association paid a visit to Paisley, I was determined to reclaim my masculinity and prove that I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.

This small group of dedicated ‘believers’ had been invited to the Scottish Spiritualist and Holistic Church, in Argyle Street, Paisley, to carry out a Ghostbusters-style stakeout in a bid to discover if anything is going bump in the night.

Far from just switching the lights out and hoping for the best, the well-equipped investigators turned up a couple of hours before midnight, armed with an arsenal of cameras, flashlights, monitors, noise detectors and even an electro magnetic field (EMF) device.

If Slimer was hiding in those walls, we were going to find him!

And it didn’t take long before I experienced my first otherworldly encounter as ‘orbs’ – a technical term for small blobs of light – appeared on the flatscreen TV mounted on the church wall which was recording proceedings in the empty room next door.

Dedicated Scottish and UK Paranormal Association member David Roy, from Paisley, revealed: “They say that 99 per cent of orbs can be explained by dust in the air but it’s when they start omitting their own light that we know they are orbs and that is the first sign of the manifestation of a ghost or spirit.”

Not content with that success, we were soon split into three groups and, armed with two torches and a dictaphone, I joined Glasgow pals Cecilia Connelly, below, and Suzie Gibson, as well as Paisley grandparents Tam and Cindy Leitch, who became interested in mediumship and paranormal activity following the tragic death of their son Mark in 1996.

The five of us headed into a former studio for an hour, hoping to make some recordings of our own in the dark.

We joined hands in a bid to build up the energy in the cold room as we prepared to get in touch with the ‘other side.’

However, the spirits weren’t in a co-operative mood and, despite repeated polite requests to make contact by switching on the light, changing the temperature or even knocking on the wall, we had to make do with Cecilia reporting the sensation of a dog running around her feet and Tam suffering a chilling tap between the shoulders, which he took as proof that we’d overstayed our welcome.

I even found myself getting carried away with the experience, barking orders at our lazy spirit hosts to show themselves before we gave up on them and continued our hunt elsewhere.

A short time later, we teamed up with investigation organiser Ian Williams’ group as we all placed a finger on a glass tumbler which was at rest on a wooden table.

The tumbler gently eased away from the centre of the table when Tam enquired “is there a child in the room and are you happy?”

Monitored

However, any hope of further conversation vanished as piercing screams broke the silence in the old recording studio and the spiritualist room being monitored by the cameras.

We hurried into the main room, where two women were standing, visibly shaken.

If I hadn’t been such a startled wreck myself, I might have taken more time to appreciate what Ian explained was “something truly amazing.”

He added: “Two people were simultaneously taken over by a bad spirit or shadow and we had to get them both out of there and out of the building as quickly as possible to give them a chance to recover.”

The two women who fell victim to ‘the shadow’ were 23-year-old Kirsty Taylor and Paisley woman Steph Roy.

After regaining their composure, they told me all about their spooky experience.

Kirsty said: “There’s a bad, bad man in that room and he wanted us out, so he channelled through me to get his way.

“It has happened to me before, when I was much younger, and I was able to use that experience and push him away.

“That sort of thing can be really frightening. I once had a spirit follow me all the way home but I’m strong enough now to control them.”

And, with that, the gloves were off.

Ian had warned me earlier, during my paranormal activity crash course, that there were a variety of spooks we might encounter, ranging from relatively-harmless poltergeists to demonic entities.

He had feared we could be dealing with a shadow that night and explained that would be “quite bad” as they could be trapped in limbo because they were a murderer or child abuser in life.

Nevertheless, with a full weaponry of cameras, our EMF device, torches, walkie-talkies, a sonic ear, two flashing cones and even a baby monitor, we all piled into the spiritualist room for a 2am stand off with our nasty host.

Now accustomed to the fact that everything had to happen in the dark, I grew in confidence as I had a number of seasoned paranormal veterans on my side.

I almost felt sorry for the ghost we were up against ... even if he was a bad guy.

However, the mood changed as Cecilia was targeted by ‘the shadow’ and she quickly bolted to the safety of the kitchen, while Kirsty repeated determined chants which were designed to keep him at bay.

Meanwhile, the bold Tam became frustrated by the ghost’s unwillingness to let the rest of us in on the action and started goading him with insults of “coward” and “scum”, without getting the reaction he was hoping for.

After a while, it appeared we had managed to overcome the evil in the building and those who stood on the frontline in the battle were recognised for their brave efforts before we all had a round of coffee to celebrate.

Personally, I was proud to go the distance on my first paranormal investigation ... even if I did end up holding hands with the others the entire time!