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| The focus of our remote viewing experiment |
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.
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| 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.
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| '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
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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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