My second ghost walk focused on the Old City. Our host introduced himself as the forth Richard employed by walks.com. He began by explaining that only about 5% of people can see ghosts. A slightly larger percentage can see things they do. A slightly larger percentage than that can hear ghosts. An even larger percentage can feel ghosts. And he was one of the unlucky few who could do none of the above.
Once again I had a pile of questions I decided not to ask. If only 5% of people can see ghosts, does that mean that ghosts only reflect a particular wavelength of light that most of the population is insensitive to? If that were the case wouldn’t people tend to lose this ability as they get older? But how else could this work? You can’t have light selectively reflected toward some people and not others. Similarly with hearing ghosts, either the ghost produces sound waves or it does not.
And what things are they doing that only some people can see? If we’re talking about flickering lights and hovering objects, does that mean that if Richard IV was sitting in a room with a psychic, she would see the lights flicker and he wouldn’t? Would a light meter register the change? If a ghost makes a light flicker in the middle of a crowded room where no one is able to see it, did it still flicker?
And why are some people capable of seeing, hearing, and feeling ghosts while others are not? How can Richard IV possibly know that he can’t? Maybe he’s just never come across a ghost. Maybe the reason that he’s one of the unlucky few is that he is a ghost!
I got the impression that Richard was trying very hard to get to see a ghost, because next he said:
“Now we will attempt to cross this busy street. Be careful because there are no lights. We shall reconvene on the other side.”
Watching him dart through the traffic I wondered whether he meant the other side of the street or THE OTHER SIDE. But we made it.
Richard IV then explained that ghosts are creatures of habit. They repeat in death what they did well in life. For example, there was a criminal who repeatedly broke out of prison, but kept getting caught and thrown back in. Finally he was executed. Now his ghost keeps being seen breaking out of the prison!
Next was the ghost of Amelia Dyer. She took in orphaned babies for money, and then murdered them and kept the money. She was eventually caught and sentenced to death. On the way to be hanged, she passed a guard in the prison, stopped, and said “I’ll meet you again sir”. Years later while he was walking through the prison he heard a ringing bell, and turned to see her face outside a door. He rushed toward her and opened the door, but she vanished. He looked down and noticed a women’s handkerchief, fluttering toward his feet.
The next story was of a man who ate at meat market and later died of food poisoning. Shortly afterward, a ghost started appearing in the market, pulling pranks, overturning stalls and causing mischief. Apparently this ghost hung around after death just to annoy his killers a bit? Assuming that his killers belonged to the small percentage of people that could see his mischief of course.
The next ghost was one that appears only to the ordained. Whether this was a select 5% of the ordained, or if all ordained people happen to be in the lucky 5%, or if something about the ordination process makes you capable of seeing ghosts was unspecified.
The next ghost wasn’t even dead! A woman in France was so ill they called a priest to administer last rights. On that night some friends saw her ghost in London. But the woman survived, she was only near death. And for some reason didn’t remember going to visit her friends.
The next stop was St Bartholomew’s hospital, where the ghost of a deceased nurse regularly gives patients their medicines when the living nurses forget. I think this hospital badly needs to tighten their security. Perhaps ghosts can pass through walls, but as far as I know they can’t take pills with them. If someone barely capable of manipulating the physical world can get into their pharmacy, remove medications and distribute them to patients I hate to think what a serial killer could do.
The final story was at Greyfriars church, which is said to be haunted by Queen Isabella. She was the wife of King Edward II, but had an affair with some guy named Roger Mortimer, who was later accused of murdering her husband. She was buried at the church, in her wedding dress with her husband’s heart placed on her chest. And now her ghost has been spotted around the church. Some say that she is clutching her husband’s heart to her chest. Others say she is scratching at her chest, as though trying to get her husbands heart out!
Given that Edward II died in 1327 and Isabella died in 1358 I’m not sure how much of his 31 year old heart she could really have been buried with.
Overall I have to say I ended this ghost tour even more confused about the properties of ghosts.
