Site launched on the 23rd February 2025

Site launched on the 23rd February 2025

Within the Boggart Wood
Within the Boggart Wood: Folklore, Ghostlore and History
BAREBONES
BAREBONES

Investigations

Welcome to "Bare Bones: investigating claims of the paranormal", a Within the Boggart Wood Project

Welcome to the Within the Boggart Wood Bare Bones: investigating claims of the paranormal project. Within the Boggart Wood is a podcast centering around the folklore, history and ghostlore of the North of England and the Scottish Borders that I started in February 2023, but I’ve noticed that I’m falling into old habits and more investigative content is appearing – so rather than hijack my own podcast I’ve set up this separate project.

First of all, Bare Bones: investigating claims of the paranormal isn’t a debunking project. Its about investigation, simple as, and following the route that the data takes us. The project also isn’t meant as an academic work – the aim is to provide information in easy to understand language. When jargon-use is necessary, there’ll be a glossary of terms to explain it.

The primary aims inititally with the project are:

  1. to investigate the equipment and methodology used by ghost hunters and paranormal investigators;
  2. to investigate slight of hand, trickery and deception employed by some unscrupulous folk to imitate paranormal activity;
  3. Investigate alleged hauntings including a look back at my own ‘back catalogue’, employing the conclusions from this project on old and new data.

I will not be looking at other folks’ investigations (unless directly asked by the team/individual in question) or naming and shaming. There are others out there who already do this, so I’ll simply be sticking to the aims and objectives of the project. I will however also look at the minefield of ethics and safety.

Background

I’ll say up front that I’m a sceptic when it comes to the paranormal. A sceptic, as in one who questions and does not simply accept supernormal claims, rather than a cynic. I’ve had a few anomalous experiences that I can’t explain over the years: admittedly, I have had a lot of other strange experiences but as I’m my own strongest critic I’ve debunked all but a handful.

By trade I’m a field archaeologist with a specialism in historic building recording. I’ve been working professionally in the heritage field since graduating with by Bachelor of Science (Hons) degree back in 1994, with forays into photographic archiving and technical authorship along the way.

My younger and sleeker self with the Lady Mayor of Newcastle, October 2004
My younger and sleeker self with the Lady Mayor of Newcastle, October 2004

Back in 2003 I was working in the same office as Tyne Bridge Publishing, Newcastle Libraries’ local history publisher. I was working on a two year project digitising a portion of the libraries’ old and delicate photographic collection (which included some beautiful old lantern slides) and the topic of my interest in ghost stories came up, as TBP’s editor was Vanessa Histon, who’d written the fantastic Nightmare on Grey Street: Newcastle’s Darker Side in 2000 and Ghosts of Grainger Town: Further tales from Newcastle’s Darker Side in 2001. Both blended real-life ghost stories into local history. Subsequently I agreed to write a new book for them: this time as well as the stories and history, they wanted investigation as well, and in October 2004 Otherworld North East: Ghosts and Hauntings Explored was published. Looking back on this, it was definitely a book of its time, but did the job promoting local history, even if now, looking back, most of the investigative elements are known I believe as facepalm moments. The team I’d put together to investigate for the book decided to stay together and continue our investigative forays into the paranormal. We were Otherworld North East (OWNE), with the organisation running in one form or another right the way through to 2022.

Looking back, its interesting to see how the team developed. Early on, I got very suspicious over multiple elements of the ‘accepted’ investigation procedure, and as such started removing those elements from our methodology. This started with removing alleged mediums from the process – at which point a portion of the team also departed and I realised that for them, it wasn’t as much about investigating the paranormal as it was about simple entertainment.

Otherworld North East
Otherworld North East

As more methods were removed, the team in the end dwindled to a core handful who agreed with what was essentially a data collection methodology rather than the traditional ghost hunt you see on TV. We continued along this vein until 2016, but it was becoming increasingly difficult to get into locations, as there’d been a paradigm shift in the field away from investigation into commercial ghost hunts, and simply put we couldn’t afford to pay locations the fees that commercial groups could. We’d also developed a reputation as a debunking group as well… this wasn’t actually the case: we simply investigated with results usually suggesting a debunking – not the same thing. This also restricted our access to some locations who didn’t want their, in some cases, made up stories debunked. By 2016, the core team also had very busy lives, and the team went on the back burner, though we kept an active social media presence until 2022, when I eventually made the decision to close the organisation down.

Later that year I made the decision to set up Within the Boggart Wood. I’d had a near scrape with finding out whether or not the afterlife existed first hand, and I decided to get back into the field of anomalous phenomena studies (more as a distraction at the time than anything else – though these things aren’t mutually linked, as I do not believe personally that ghostly phenomena has any link to an alleged afterlife). One of my pet hates has always been public speaking and I’d decided it was time to face my fears – the first episode of Within the Boggart Wood went live in February 2023.

Define 'paranormal'

In essence, if something is ‘paranormal’, it is ‘beyond normal’ and not explainable by known science. So by its very definition, if something is explainable, then its not paranormal…

To me though, and this is something that will likely get me in a lot of trouble with the ‘paranormal community’, I’d argue that today’s ghosthunters and paranormal investigators don’t actually know how to discern a genuine paranormal event, as we as individuals don’t know enough known science to recognise when something is explainable or not.

Instead, I’d argue that what we (and I include myself in this) investigate is perceived paranormal, based on the limits of our own knowledge. For example, an event that appears anomalous to me may be easily explainable by say, for example, a professional physicist. Similarly, someone in an old building may hear a creak and think its a ghost, whereas myself who works in the environment simply regard it as the sound of a building settling etc. 

The difficulty many in the field have is that they’re not willing to recognise their own limits, but if you can’t even do that, how can you claim a paranormal event?

Sections

Project updates

The project pages will continue to develop as and when I find more relevant information, with more sections being added as and when I’ve collated the relevant research.

23/02/25: Project launch.

  1. Introductory video added;
  2. Tricks & deceptions short video #1 added;
  3. Tricks & deceptions short video #2 added;

Back in 1995, Carl Sagan (an American astronomer and planetary scientist) had a profound prediction … just as relevant to the UK at the moment is it is to those across the Pond:

"I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...”

Disclaimer

As previously noted, this project looks at the data and reality behind understanding the equipment and how different methods affect interpretations of alleged paranormal activity. The findings of the project are not ‘having a go’ at any individual, group or interweb channel so I’d appreciate it if anyone who disagrees with the project contents and feel the need to get in touch, then that communication should remain polite and factual. For an added bonus here, anyone sending abusive messages will have their message screenshot and included in the project’s social media (including names). Anyone sending threatening messages will have their email/messages forwarded to the relevant authorities. No messing around. 

Ghost hunter vs investigator

During this project you’ll note that I differentiate between ‘ghost hunters’ and ‘investigators’.

To me, an investigator, without wanting to sound condescending, investigates. This involves detailed observation, data recording and where in all cases possible the identification of the cause and source of alleged phenomena. The investigator is a sceptic – without scepticism and critical thinking, you can’t investigate.

A ghost hunter on the other hand, attends sites of alleged paranormal activity to reinforce their own personal beliefs through spiritual means or technical gadgetry. There is a reliance these days on apps, ‘tools’ such as the ouija, night vision cameras and no or little effort is made to identify naturally occurring or man-made elements. As the focus of commercial ghost hunts is entertainment, I also put these events/groups into this category. 


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