Now this article really caught my attention. Forget calling in the ghost hunters, mediums or the church to your property if you suspect you have a ghost or spirit, call in a parapsychologist. Now, I find a small portion of it's content to make for slight uncomfortable reading, Mera's assumptions are that ghosts and spirits exist...but his methodology may be the way forward in investigations.
A Conversation with Parapsychologist
Stephen Mera. BSc - The Quiet Ones
The Quiet Ones is the latest release from legendary horror studio Hammer. Loosely based on a 1972 experiment into parapsychology, it’s a terrifying supernatural thriller about Jane Harper – a girl with some seriously sinister powers. We awarded it four stars in our cinema review here.
To celebrate its release on Blu-ray and DVD, we spoke to parapsychologist Stephen Mera about his experiences with the paranormal…
What does your job entail?
I carry out investigations for private individuals, corporate organisations and tenants’ associations. We’ve even done some work for the police. Phenomena are more likely to take place in normal homes than the mansions and stately homes that are typically thought to be haunted. Of course, most things can be easily rationalised and explained, but I have witnessed some fascinating events.
It’s surprising to hear of tenants’ associations employing a parapsychologist! Does that happen a lot?
More so now. I used to do work for councils across the country. Sometimes there would be incidents of tenants reporting strange incidents. The tenants’ associations needed some sort of protocol and would have to send somebody out to investigate. Nowadays people are more forthcoming and report incidents, but they still don’t know who to report these things to. Generally they’ll tell their families and after that perhaps a medium and then maybe a priest – although the church is usually reluctant to get involved these days.
Why is that?
Because of the public interest. Priests and vicars know that the general public are interested in this stuff. People like to dabble in the subject and their minds can run away with them. Priests need hard evidence before they get involved and even then they’re worried because of the media and tabloid publicity.
So, let’s say you’ve found a haunted building. What would your next step be?
We’d establish if there is a disturbance. If we did find evidence then the tenants would probably have to relocate. We ask a series of questions to help determine if there is a phenomena there or not. As you’d imagine, we know the difference between the real thing and people who have just watched too much TV. In some cases we have had to have families relocated. If that happens then we leave the house to lie fallow for 12 months.
What do you mean by that?
The family are moved out and the house is stripped of electrical input. We have found a definite connection between phenomena and electricity. In some cases phenomena has been seen to feed on electricity. There have been unusually large electrical build ups and flickering lights and electrical disturbances. When we have these, people are relocated to make sure they’re safe and we suggest leaving the property empty for 12 months.
Are they sentient?
When it’s highly interactive, then in some cases, yes, there is intelligence. They’re aware of their timeline and occasionally move things around.
Stephen Mera. He ain’t afraid of no ghost…
Do you personally believe that these could be the spirits of the dead?
Yes! I believe some incidents may be associated to residual phenomena, a type of recording of an event played back at a later time, witnessed by people and termed “a haunting”. There are other types as well.
Such as?
There are locations that people would traditionally say are “haunted”. When the new residents move in and encounter the haunting, their first instinct is to want to get rid of it right away, but they don’t understand that it’s not that simple. It can be like trying to catch a fly in a glass – and occasionally it can be next to impossible, especially stately homes and buildings that have a lot of history.
A lot of phenomena are what we call “fear feeders”. They create phenomena to generate fear in the residents of a property. The more upset they get, the more things happen and it becomes a vicious circle. We try to educate people on how to react and to think rationally so that the phenomena lessens. It does seem to work.
What has been your most exciting encounter?
In 1996 I was called out by the Rochdale city council. They had some tenants in prefabricated bungalows. They reported a case of water appearing and disappearing in the house across the ceilings, on doors… sometimes it was as if it was raining indoors. One of the residents of the house would actually sit in his kitchen with his brolly up!
At that time Britain was in the middle of a heat wave. We hadn't had rain for a long time and after four-and-a-half weeks a hose-pipe ban had been put in place. So the council had looked at the property. They had checked the plumbing and the pipes and they couldn’t find a rational explanation.
I witnessed it myself. The way I would describe it is if you took a glass of water and threw it across the floor, you would see the water arc out of the glass. We saw this, but it was moving and arcing across the ceiling. At one point we actually saw it move around a light fitting as if it was intelligently controlled.
Now, I went into this case as a sceptic, but we – there was myself and two others – were in the bedroom and we heard a rasping breath behind us. As I turned around I felt a hard thump and I was lifted up off the bed and thrown four feet into a cabinet. I had a big bruise to show from it! But what I noticed, aside from it being very painful, was that it felt like both a punch and an electrical shock at the same time. It was very worrying. We had the family relocated and the house was left fallow for a considerable amount of time.
What is the biggest misconception of the work that you do?
That parapsychologists are sceptics. We are not. Parapsychologists believe that there may be some incidents that are real thus we conduct our experimental research in the hope of finding tangible, replicatable conclusions.
From the makers of Hammer House of Horror - The Quiet Ones
From the producers who brought you The Woman In Black and Let Me In comes the unnerving tale of The Quiet Ones. Tucked away in an estate outside of London, Professor Coupland along with a team of university students conduct an “experiment” on Jane Harper, a young girl who harbors unspeakable secrets. What dark forces they uncover are more terrifying than any of them expected. Inspired by true events, the film stars Jared Harris (‘Mad Men’ and Sherlock Homes: A Game of Shadows), Sam Claflin (The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), Olivia Cooke (‘Bates Motel’), and is directed by John Pogue from a screenplay by Craig Rosenberg and Oren Moverman and John Pogue, and based on a screenplay by Tom de Ville.
Stephen first became interested in the subject of UFOs and the Paranormal at an early age and after leaving secondary school he studied at North Trafford College and GEC Electrical for 5 years and obtained a Degree in Electrical Engineering. During this time Stephen began conducting research which lead to numerous investigations which he carried out on in own, until opening Cheshire UFO Group.
Here The Fan Carpet talks to renowned Parapsychologist Stephen Mera about the science behind the supernatural...
The best place to start is by asking how you became interested in Parapsychology?
That generally comes from reading my father’s books at an early age having the interest and wanting to learn about this phenomena about paranormal disturbances are they real or is it TV hype? Or what you read in the newspapers but to properly understand and to investigate things you have to first learn and understand psychology how the human mind works, how our perception works have I seen anything out of the corner of my eye? Peripheral vision there are lots and lots of explanations and how we perceive things and rationalise and how our eyes work. I have been involved in the subject for 31 years having studied degree level in supernatural experiences.
Can you recall when you first became aware of paranormal and psychic phenomenon? Was it through film, television or literature?
As a child the first paranormal television series was Scooby Doo and they always found an explanation at the end of it I loved Scooby Doo as a child, it got me interested and then there was RentaGhost and a few other television shows. But it was my father’s books which led me down this path. I followed my interests and I have been doing this for the past 31 years and I love my job very much.
In The Quiet Ones there is a belief that people can be or are the source of this activity – if we cure the individual then we cure humanity. It is an interesting talking point as the depiction of paranormal and psychic phenomenon in films and literature has been cast as an external threat – something to torment us by external forces. Your thoughts on the way our perception of paranormal and psychic phenomenon has been shaped by art over the years?
The problem that we have is what is seen on television, in films, shows etc. and what is really go on in the field. Very rarely is the realm of parapsychology looked at, in the movies it's just the paranormal phenomena and not the study of it. The Quiet Ones sort of takes us in a different direction entirely, There are, and have been reports that certain people do manifest experiences around them; be it that they have some connection with the phenomena and can manifest apparitions to the movement of objects, some people have often reported the movement of an object, is that them or the presence of an external force? We look at both sides of the coin, and look at how the phenomena takes place and where it has come from and how does it work. And in some cases, we find that people are responsible, we do not have all the answers.
Axelle Carolyn in conversation of Soulmate offered, “I’d say the reason I was drawn to a more classical approach was the fact that I believe ghosts are in essence tragic and sad characters; lost between two worlds and unable to communicate.” I’d be interested in your response to this perspective, and whether paranormal and psychic phenomenon is easily defined as opposites: good and evil, calm or disruptive?
A ghost is a sighting of person believed to be a spirit, a lot of people get that wrong because the terminology in films is wrong. The sighting of certain ghostly figures that have been reported, most of them are associated with haunting phenomena, long term and residual, in other words it is tied to the location, it's a recorded event that plays back and sometimes people who are in the right place with the right environment will see that played back, like watching a television programme and say 'oh god, I've seen a ghost, it's haunted.' It's not really a haunting because a haunting is interactive. Many cases could be something tragic when residual phenomena takes place, a recorded event, it tends to be something traumatic. There are different types of haunting.
Loosely based on the 1972 Philip experiment in Toronto, how much responsibility is placed on the shoulders of the filmmakers to ensure that a true depiction of such research is transmitted?
I'm aware of Dr Owen, and their results from that where they manifested and generated a ghost that never really existed. he believed that they made contact with him, they saw the table rock, they believed that if you believe strongly enough in something then you can manifest it, just like stigmata.
There was another experiment, called the Scole Experiment in Norfolk in 1993, where they did a similar thing, where evidence suggests that something did go on. These experiments do go on, how correct they are in the films depends on where thy get the information from. I'd suggest going to the Parapsychology departments to assist and help.
In regards to The Quiet Ones, a lot of what was depicted in the film was accurate, but some of it was not.
Personally, when you watch a film like The Quiet Ones and Jared Harris’ performance, do you find it easy to accept it as a dramatic interpretation of research into paranormal and psychic phenomenon or are the dramatic elements a source of frustration.
I've done a lot of work overseas for television and they have this image of a Parapsychologist to smoke a pipe, have a beard and a tweed jacket, but it's very much far from the truth; Parapsychologist range from about nineteen to ninety.
His performance in the film was brilliant, he was the perfect guy to get for that role, last time I saw him, he was playing Professor Moriarty in Sherlock, he suits those kinds of roles.
Parapsychology has been forced to confront the label of being a pseudoscience. From your point of view how vital is the ongoing research of parapsychology into helping us understand our own world which we are still far from fully understanding?
In this country, unfortunately, it doesn't deal with Parapsychology very well, it doesn't accept it at all. However, in America, Parapsychology is accepted more. I'm always being asked 'How do you become a Parapsychologist? And does it pay?' To be a Parapsychologist you have to do everything; you have to write, you have to teach, you have to lecture, you have to research. But in this country, we do need to move forward, bring in new forms of evidence. We want you to perform now but unfortunately it does not always works like that.
Why does paranormal and psychic phenomenon continue to be a compelling subject for filmmakers and audiences alike?
It's a natural instinct that humanity has, we want to learn about something unusual this has been going on for hundreds of years. If we put humanity in a room and said 'don't push the red button' they would. We've got to know how it works and what it does. It's a natural inclination to learn. Do people believe in god or demons, and there are reports of angelic and demonic encounters, but unfortunately there is little evidence to support, but they make for fascinating reading. The truth of the matter is, that is evidence to support paranormal activity, the unfortunate side to it is that there is little evidence to support the accounts of it.
How important is the presence of paranormal and psychic phenomenon in the media and art to parapsychology?
The media are responsible for the escalation in interest in parapsychology. The television shows like Most Haunted, encourages people to ask those questions and pry.
If you were to recommend two lists of films and/or books - one that comprises good dramatic stories about paranormal and psychic phenomenon, and the second which offers a more authentic representation, what would they be?
In regard in television the best TV program, a TV movie I believe called The Haunted from the 80's I believe, it was based on a true story of this family who were haunted in their home. A true depiction of what took place and also quite scary and accurate information.
With books, there are thousands of reference books out there. I would suggest obtaining books from people who have written them.
I've got a couple of books out, my second one was a best seller called Memoirs of a Paranormal Investigator.
Unfortunately I don’t see many films that do it for me, but a scary film with a good storyline is The Haunting, the 1963, panoramic, black and white version, that required no special effects. There was a remake but it was nowhere near as scary as the original. Fantastic film.
The Quiet Ones Film Page
THE QUIET ONES IS OUT NOW ON BLU-RAY AND DVD