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Tuesday 2 August 2016

Remote viewing exercise, 26th July 2016



The focus of our remote viewing experiment
 For a number of years now, we’ve been aware that photographic images can be a form of stimuli for Laura, especially with focused concentration.

Initially, in the past, this has led others to contact us for Laura to view images and report back, where the feedback on her output has been positive but, until recently, we have never examined or utilised this aspect in any great detail, mainly due to other areas of focus for us rather than any disinterest.

When our paths initially crossed, a number of years ago, we briefly visited a location, a disused church on the Suffolk / Essex border, not far from Borley, with Jason, a friend of ours who we have mentioned in previous writings.

The visit, on a clear, crisp February evening, proved relatively uneventful, although Laura, at the time, reported that she was ‘drawn’ to a particular corner of the location, with perhaps a ‘connection to children’.

Neither Laura nor I have been back to the location since, although it must be noted that I was relatively familiar with the site, but with no in depth knowledge of the history connected to it.

In recent weeks, over general conversation, Jason casually made us aware that he was organising another visit to the location, he himself having not visited for some time. Sadly, whilst we were unable to join him, he kindly offered to provide some photographs of the location, which we could use for what would be effectively be a remote viewing experiment.

Jason visited the location on the 25th July, a Monday, kindly providing a set of eight images the following evening, to enable us to undertake the exercise a couple of hours later, when the house would be quiet.

The images themselves covered three areas of the location.

No further details of his visit were provided, other than the comment ‘it was a quiet evening’ and, at that point in proceedings, he hadn’t analysed any of the media output from his time there.

As for the location itself, as previously mentioned, I was relatively familiar with the spot itself, but not the surrounding area and, had general knowledge of certain features and alleged history of the location, which I had never discussed with Laura.

Laura knew nothing about the location, other than she had previously had a brief visit and that it was near Borley presuming, correctly, that it was in Suffolk.

Finally, we have not provided any references in this article, although they are available privately. This is to help prevent the location from being easily identified by what follows.


The experiment
At 10pm the following evening, we sat down in from of the computer, where Laura was able to view the images for the first time.

We were apprehensive, it must be said, as with previous attempts not all images provided stimuli, therefore the whole exercise could have turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.

However, as it was, this turned out far from being the case and Laura got the strongest reaction to the set of images that she had ever had to date.

As we alluded to previously, some of the images were of the same scenes, taken from different angles, so the summary below condenses these to four main images, to avoid the risk of over complication.

In addition, Laura was able to pick up some names, which have not been provided in the summary below, to allow further research and avoid influencing any future visitors to the location, that could possibly occur should they read this.

Jason and I have subsequently had some private correspondence on some points, to provide additional clarity


Image 1

From this photograph, Laura picked up a male’s name (both first name and possible surname) and the compass point ‘East’

Laura also sensed in her right arm, some elbow pain and associated muscular spasms.

In the top far distance of the image, a tree trunk can be seen. In all of the images that featured this scene, she sensed ‘shadows’ watching / observing, from behind the tree trunk.

The first name of a female was also picked up.


Image 2

Laura immediately picked up a female forename, followed by what could only be described as a bad reaction to the image, she felt her heart racing, together with the sense edginess, and she described it as not a pleasant feeling.

She also felt that there were headstones or similar low stones amongst the undergrowth in the trees show in the background.

By now, Laura’s scribbling on the note pad was not keeping up with the information that she was relating to me, so I decided to switch on the audio recorder so that we were able to capture everything and avoid the risk of missing any details.

This recording also, inadvertently, captured the context and emotions of what Laura was experiencing, which proved very useful when documenting the experiment and will therefore be something that we will continue to do in any future experiments, where practical.

Original image, with the 'face' circled.
At this point, Laura drew my attention to a face of a male that she could see in the trees at the rear of the image. The face had a beard and was on the right hand side of the photograph, which you can see highlighted in the image below.










'Face' enlarged





Laura acknowledges that this is pareidolia caused by the foliage of the tree, but stated regardless, that this is the way that the male chooses to reveal himself.

Laura then started to feel nauseas and picked up upon on a young boy, who she felt was involved in a hit and run accident nearby.  She advised that he probably died as a consequence of the accident, but at this point she couldn’t be entirely certain.

After spending more time dwelling on this point further, she felt that the male (face) could have had something to do with this and perhaps this wasn’t an accident.





Image 3

Again, within seconds of viewing the photograph, Laura related to me that she felt that she should be kneeling down at the gravestone on the right, at the foot of the tower, looking up towards the top of the tower, at a male looking down at her. She got the impression that he, the male, was wondering what she was doing there.

She then picked up on a female forename and surname.

This was accompanied by sharp violent pains to her abdomen, possibly originating from being stabbed, but at the same time she was also sensing a forced abortion related to the female, linked to the church somehow, either a direct link or via a family linked to the church.

It was this, Laura advised, that was causing her to kneel at the gravestone.

After a couple of minute’s silence, Laura asked me if there was a lake nearby? I advised that I wasn’t aware of one – I was not aware of the geography of the local area and I had only previously visited the location in the dark and, in all this time had never noticed a lake.

Laura went on to explain that she had got a view of a lake from the top of the tower, in a northerly direction towards the rear of the church. She also picked up upon an arch, but she couldn’t explain any further.

Later, Laura advised that the man on top the tower was looking towards the direction of the lake, to see if anyone was approaching the church.

Laura then picked up a male forename and surname, a French one, before exclaiming that there was something structurally missing from the church, as you view this image today.

Before we moved to the next photograph, Laura stated that she didn’t like the feeling she got from the lower right hand side of the image.

After a pause, Laura mentioned that she felt that there was also a chapel, nearby.

There was then a long pause before Laura announced that it felt like, to her, that the church was funded, or had benefactors from one family, that helped support the church. In return, the church had to suffer, or remain silent about what that family wanted, the deeds that it did, for fear of losing this funding.

Laura then clarified that this was not necessarily the church itself, but the church people that ran it. She also added that there were five family members, three being brothers, who were the ‘main’ members.

Changing key, Laura felt that someone fell from top of the tower, straight down over the edge, but with the emphasis that someone was accused of pushing them.

Nothing further was forthcoming on this point.


Image 4


Laura straight away picked up upon children, particularly that of a young boy, aged around 7 or 8 years old, who was sat near the small pile of broken stones / headstone that can on the left hand side of the image.

She felt that the boy was sat there all of the time, watching.

Not necessarily watching the three gentlemen that we can see in the image, but watching and observing, looking on.

I asked if the boy was a site guardian, but Laura responded categorically no!

She also picked up a forename for this boy, as well as what she presumed could be his surname. However, she couldn’t be entirely sure if the surname was connected with the boy.

She then got the forename of a young girl, who was associated with the area of the crooked cross gravestone visible on the right hand side of the photograph.

After a pause, Laura asked about a ring of graves, or even possibly trees. I advised unlikely, but she was repeatedly getting the phrase ‘within a ring’.

For clarity, I asked if this was why the boy was watching, but Laura never directly answered, simply stating that he was outside of the ring.  

Laura then asked me if there was a carving, or something etched, scored into the rear of the Celtic cross gravestone in the centre of the image, which I obviously couldn’t answer.

Laura then went on to tell me that she felt that there were grave stones missing in front of the three gentlemen - there were more buried, but not acknowledged.

Finally, Laura asked if there were houses in the back ground of the image (which, if you look very carefully, you can just make our small areas of brickwork through the foliage, to which I advised that there were indeed offices / business units on the other side of the trees.

Laura pressed on and commented that there was nothing there originally, the church was isolated.

This final statement effectively brought the experiment to an end.



The work begins......
As always, Laura’s output potentially provided many areas of research.

Names are always problematic, even with the access to genealogy records that I had, it was a very difficult task – there is no guarantee that a name you get was born or lived in a particular area, so to some extent names can be a lottery.

There was a family associated with the location, who’s name did not come up with the information that Laura got, but I will cover this below.

Events are also tricky to navigate, often we are dealing with the minute details of an event in someone’s life centuries ago, interesting as it may be.

Unless we are dealing with something of the magnitude of the assignation of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, most events rely on them being recorded in local folklore and history, if deemed important enough.

Finally, we have geographical features that may be described. Sometimes these can also be difficult to research, but fundamentally, this area is often the one that you are able to quickly validate when commencing research.

Looking back at Laura’s output from the session, we therefore chose to commence research in the following areas:

1.       Death:
a.       Did anyone die (or was badly injured) as a result of a fall from the church tower, or indeed a road traffic accident nearby?; and
b.      Was there any history of abortions associated with, or someone (presumably female) being stabbed at the location?

2.       The physical features and history of the location:
a.       Was there a lake or body of water nearby and, if so would it have been visible from the church tower when looking north?
b.      Is there a record of an Arch, that no longer exists, being in the vicinity of the water (or indeed the church itself, at a stretch)?
c.       Is there a chapel (or similar place of worship) nearby?
d.      Was the church, in former times, isolated from other habitations in the past?
e.      Was there a single family with strong connections to the location / church?
f.        Was there now something structurally missing from the church, as we see it today? ; and
g.       Was something carved or etched into the rear of the Celtic cross gravestone?

3.       Optimistically, do any of the names that Laura picked up, check out?



Results of my initial research
Having decided on the areas upon which to focus our research, the quest was soon underway, which I can summarise as follows:

1.       Death
To date, we have not been able to find any record of a road traffic accident or death at the church. This aspect of the information that Laura picked up was inclusive and, perhaps it should not be a surprise in view of the implied clandestine nature of the events.

2.       The physical features and history of the location:

a.       Lake / body of water to the north of the church
This was quickly verified, looking at an ordinance survey map of the area, we found a 16th Century Manor House, complete with moat and two lakes, believed to have been originally medieval fish ponds, approximately three quarters of a  kilometre away.

Today, the lake(s) are not visible from the tower, a direct view being obscured by a small wood, which was planted in the 1930’s. Searching further, I found that the area to the north of the church, today which are fields, was previously parkland containing a herd of deer, a deer park, that were used as a source of fresh meat and for sport by the occupants of the house.

Therefore it was clear that there was a lake (which still exists) that would have been viewable from the church tower prior to the 1930’s.

b.      An arch, no longer in existence, in the vicinity of the lake
Again this was easily verified.

Although no longer present, it was recorded that historically, there was a fine archway over the brick bridge across the moat to the Manor House. This was demolished a long time ago, leaving only the brick bridge that still stands today.

Crucially, from the perspective that Laura gave, the arch would have been visible from the tower.

c.       A chapel nearby
When Laura initially came up with this, I racked my brains to see if I could think of the building that she was referring to.

Whilst I couldn’t think of any suitable places of worship, current or otherwise, I surmised that the nearest town / villages were a couple of miles away, where logically such a building could / could have existed.

Would either of these locations qualify as ‘nearby’? Probably not, to my reckoning.

However, upon commencing my research on this point, I found that the answer was staring me right in my face.

The small oblong extension attached to the north side of the church, was actually the private chapel of the occupants of the Manor House, constructed in the 16th Century, contemporary with the building of the remaining parts of the current House that we see today.

The church itself dates from the 15th Century.

Three positive results so far.

d.      The physical isolation of the church in comparison to other habitations.
Whilst the nearby town has encroached within yards of the church in recent years, the tiny hamlet in which the church is located actually pre-dates its more illustrious and famous neighbour by centuries and indeed was referred to until relatively recently (within the last 30 years or so), as the church in the fields, a lonely and isolated place.

Another piece of the jigsaw that Laura had picked up that yet again had proved accurate.

e.      A single, powerful family connected to the church?
This was indeed true and whilst at the time Laura came out with this I could not recall who, exactly, the family were, I knew they were important.

Whilst I shall refrain from naming the family at present, as Laura is still not aware of them and, they could crop up again in any experiments that we do.

The Manor House that they built was, at one time, said to be the most important in the County of Suffolk and the family has included Members of Parliament and the Grand Mother of Britain’s first Prime Minister.

It could not be ever said that the family was without influence.

At the time of writing, I have not researched that greatly into the family, so I have no comment on the other information that Laura came up with in a historical context, but this information clearly remains a possibility.

f.        There is something structurally that is now missing from the church, as we see it now, today.
This is problematic, as students of the development of religious buildings though the ages would be aware that the vast majority of churches went through periods of restoration over the centuries – the older the church, the more restorations that took place.

This church was no different.

Structurally, windows have been moved or even blocked, as can be seen in image 3 and walls rebuilt and the church possibly even extended at both ends.

However, for me, there are two possible candidates for what Laura was referring to.

The first is that is it’s suspected, via the positioning and unusual shapes of some of 15th / 16th Century windows, that the church originally contained a stairway or gallery, that has not been documented and is no longer present.

The second is that two of the large tomb chests in the chapel, contain the bodies of two prominent members of the family referred to by Laura, originally stood under canopies. These were destroyed in 1868 as part of one of the restorations of the church.

It is also thought that something else is missing, but I’ve rejected this as a possibly candidate for now.

g.       Something carved / etched into the rear of the Celtic Cross styled grave stone
This is something that will require a physical examination of the cross. Jason has suggested that he may be revisiting the location soon and has offered to investigate this for us.


3.       Do any of the names that Laura picked up check out?
My least favourite part of the research, but ultimately one that must be undertaken.

Whilst at least hopeful for the French name that Laura mentioned, a quick online search uncovered nothing of note that could be specifically linked to the names.



Reflection
Overall, the exercise proved both interesting and rewarding for us.

When I (Mark) undertake research following exercises like this, I have no expectations either way although, if I’m honest, in the back of my mind I don’t believe that I will be able to confirm any of the information that Laura obtains.

However, Laura, once again, came up with several pieces of information that was not known to us and, which could be considered obscure.

In particular, with the seven pieces of information linked to the physical and historical side of things, I was able to confirm all but one of the points, the seventh remaining elusive and will only be confirmed or otherwise by a location visit.

Are these just fortunate guesses that could be applied to any location blindly, or is there something else involved?

However, ultimately, only you can be the judge of what I’ve written. For us, our role is to simply observe, record and document the process, as it happened, along with any subsequent research.

As mentioned at the start of the article, we do have audio for most of the session and it is possible that we may post a video of the experiment on our YouTube channel, if we get enough time.

For the future, there is always the opportunity to undertake further research or even a location visit, but for now, we’re simply filing our papers and turning our focus back to other projects.

Perhaps we will return to this case at a later date.

Needless to say, if you have any comments to make, feel free to let us know and perhaps we could discuss further.

L&M



(All original images courtesy of J.T. Duke)

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