There is a ghost in the machine. Specifically, in Derby City General Hospital’s X-ray machine, or thereabouts.
Staff at the new £334m hospital received an email last week informing them that following multiple sightings of a “cloaked figure dressed in black” senior management had decided to enlist Derby Cathedral’s help in exorcising the phantom.
Hospital boss Debbie Butler wrote:
I’m not sure how many of you are aware that some members of staff have reported seeing a ghost. I’m taking it seriously as it is affecting some members of staff and the last thing I want is staff feeling uneasy at work. I don’t want to scare anyone any more than necessary, but felt it was best I made you all aware of the situation and what we are doing about it. I’ve spoken to the trust’s chaplain and she is going to arrange for someone from the cathedral to exorcise the department.
While some staff might be reassured by the presence of cathedral-based ghost-busters, I can’t imagine it provides much comfort to patients: “The doctor will see you shortly, just as soon as someone deals with the spirit of Death that seems to be stalking the halls. Thank you for your patience.”
But perhaps the move isn’t so ridiculous after all, given Derby’s long association with the supernatural. In 2008, the city was named the UK’s most haunted by the Supernatural Britain Report. The research was carried out by Lionel Fanthorpe, who as well as claiming to be a fully-ordained Anglican priest is also President of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (his wife is First Lady) and can be hired as a consultant for a mere £1000 a day.
Despite Lionel’s extensive claims to approach supernatural phenomena from a scientific perspective, the fine print of the Supernatural Britain Report reveals that it was not only commissioned by Warner Bros., in order to promote the release of a new DVD, but that he “conducted the survey through desk-based research into supernatural occurrences in the UK’s largest 40 cities. He researched multiple websites, archives and other records of paranormal sightings, as well as utilising his own extensive archive material.”
It’s difficult to know what to think with so much high-quality research available to us. Carrie Quinlan offers these sage words: “I say live and let live. Or live and let be dead. Or don’t ever be ill in Derby, which was my motto anyway.”
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10 responses
Amused to read that the Sun are calling this ghost the phantom of the op area.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2192982.ece
I particularly like “Your mother tucks cots in hell,” from the excellent BS Historian…
http://bshistorian.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/your-mother-tucks-cots-in-hell/
This is just hilarious!
Can you imagine having to fill in the Occupational Health and Safety forms for this?
It’s a shame they didn’t make it an ecumenical event, just to be sure.
I can believe this story actually. Once I was looking at an x-ray and I saw a skeleton.
I don’t think there’s anything ‘claimed’ about Lionel Fanthorpe’s ordination; he’s quite a well-known (and rather beloved, especially for his appalling sci-fi books, which he used to churn out at a rate of knots in the 60s) figure and nobody’s ever doubted his ordination to the best of my knowledge.
When it comes to exorcisms, the vast majority of the work done by priests (Anglican and Catholic, and I’m sure many others) around it is essentially and deliberately about psychological reassurance. I don’t think that’s a bad thing in itself - rumour and atmosphere are pretty powerful forces, and if people are afraid, there’s often an underlying cause which a good ‘exorcist’ will try to address. (My granny, who was a vicar’s wife and firm skeptic, said it was normally a case of getting brighter lighting and opening the curtains.) Whatever one’s feelings about the supernatural - and I’m personally a firm skeptic - I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of ritual as a source of reassurance and comfort. Health work is stressful and upsetting, and it’s hardly surprising that a community might end up externalizing these feelings in some form - I’ve heard a greater than average share of doctors and nurses talk about experiences of hauntings, bad feelings, and similar.
I think there’s a bad tendency on this blog recently, and among some other skeptical sites, to go instantly to cheap mockery rather than trying to think serious about *why* people believe these things, to rely on second-hand reports about such incidents, and to treat believers in the supernatural as universally idiots or fools. It has something of the air of Victorian scientists mocking native beliefs about it.
I agree. Although there is much to mock and critisise in the paranormal, such as the mediums who exploit people’s grief by pretending to be able to communicate with ‘the other side’, as well as sensationalist rubbish like the TV show Most Haunted, there are also a large number of sane and rational people who claim to have seen or heard what could be paranormal phenomena. What the cause of these experiences is, I cannot say, and I’m sure many of them could be given rational scientific explanations, but I dont see the harm in these people conducting a religious ritual in their workplace if it makes them feel better. Not all Christians are creationist nutters and not all believers in the supernatural are irrational fools and I dont see why this story should have been included in this otherwise admirable website. Oh yes, and Father Lionel Fairnthorpe is a fully-ordained vicar in the Anglican Church of Wales. If you want to accuse a man of being a fraud i suggest you include some evidence next time.
omh ghost are soo scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i have sseenn one once, it was scary mary!!!
Ghosts are not departed people - but in reality demons posing as dead loved ones. They can be rebuked and cleared away
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