{"id":8051,"date":"2012-08-06T07:11:38","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T06:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=8051"},"modified":"2015-02-25T20:38:04","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T20:38:04","slug":"nepi-a-ghostly-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/?p=8051","title":{"rendered":"NEPI: a ghostly vacuum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very late on Saturday night I went ghost-hunting.<\/p>\n

The venue was a manorial house, the seat of a Scottish estate, less than 30 miles south of Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

The event, organised by NEPI (North East Paranormal Investigations), started promptly at 9pm.<\/p>\n

But shouldn’t the organisers, given that we were in Scotland, be called SEPI (South East Paranormal Investigations)?<\/p>\n

Actually, no.<\/p>\n

The canny lads and lasses of NEPI were drawn from the north-east of England’s stout-hearted phalanx of ghost-hunters.<\/p>\n

Pet.<\/p>\n

The NE in NEPI is an indication of where the ghost-hunting team are based; it isn’t an exclusive label of the area they operate in.<\/p>\n

Along with ten other spook-seekers, I arrived a little before 9pm.<\/p>\n

I did wonder if our ghostly friends would be similarly prompt.<\/p>\n

At the start of the tour\/investigation, we were issued with…<\/p>\n

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… our ghost meters!<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were given a brief history of the impressive-looking house and were then told what we could (possibly) expect, if we experienced any ‘contact’.<\/p>\n

From the physical to the metaphysical.<\/p>\n

Our ghost meters were explained to us; what they measured, how they operated.<\/p>\n

Infrared and UV devices were shown to us.<\/p>\n

The team introduced themselves (I experienced\u00a0a momentary loss of understanding as my inbuilt universal translator switched from English to Geordie but, truthfully,\u00a0their accents\u00a0somehow added to the experience).<\/p>\n

And, most importantly, we were given strict instructions on how to faint.<\/p>\n

Fainting correctly, it was pointed out to us, would\u00a0minimise damage to the priceless artifacts within the stately home.<\/p>\n

Safe in the knowledge that, should we lose consciousness, we would hit the deck in a manner previously calculated to cause the minimum amount of damage to our surroundings, we gingerly made our way up the steps, and in through the front door.<\/p>\n

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Fortunately, because we were so far north (compared to home base in Oxfordshire, even at 9.15pm on an August evening, the house was bathed in early evening sunlight.<\/p>\n

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For reasons never fully explained, there was a grey horse (not a real one, obv), gazing out of a ground-floor window.<\/p>\n

Odd, eh?<\/p>\n

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Our NEPI hosts guided us inside and upstairs to the first floor and, as we went, they explained a few details of the age and importance of various portraits and\u00a0objets d’art<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The price (or pricelessness) of many was emphasised.<\/p>\n

Over-emphasised.<\/p>\n

The group was split in half (not literally!); my group was taken in to a ghostly bedroom filled with eeriness and electric atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Actually… not.<\/p>\n

The bedroom was warm and comfortable; the large four-poster bed looked terrifically inviting and the decor – and carpets – added the dimension of a very liveable-in room.<\/p>\n

Large, but liveable-in.<\/p>\n

I’ve stayed in creepier hotels. And with creepier people accompanying me.<\/p>\n

As our paranormal guides explained history and consequence, we were given the opportunity to stand, in the dark (windows had been shuttered) in a separate bedroom.<\/p>\n

To await the ghostly arrival of something from another place.<\/p>\n

I gave it a go.<\/p>\n

I stood in the pitch blackness of a neighbouring bedroom, waving my ghost meter around in front of me, as if it were some kind of micro Jedi lightsaber.<\/p>\n

I may have started to make the ‘buzz-whoosh’ sound that lightsabers make.<\/p>\n

Ahem.<\/p>\n

And then my ghost meter went off and I cacked<\/strong> myself.<\/p>\n

It lit up, it beeped loudly; starting with a slow intermittent beep then getting quicker and quicker as the\u00a0thing<\/em> <\/strong>it was detecting got nearer and nearer.<\/p>\n

My ghost meter went ballistic as it got next to my pocket.<\/p>\n

My pocket where my phone was.<\/p>\n

I switched my phone off.<\/p>\n

The ghost meter went back to its previously inert state. I cursed the GPS in my phone and hoped I hadn’t actually cacked myself.<\/p>\n

I sauntered back in to the main bedroom, looking relaxed and nonchalant, and joined my fellow ghost hunters and ghost hunterets.<\/p>\n

A couple of hours later, as the hour approached midnight, our ghostly tour drew to a close in the most impressive gallery.<\/p>\n

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This is a beautiful room with a vaulted ceiling that has been designed as a central – glassed – feature.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the glass served to reflect the emergency exit lights. This added a ghostliness all of its own, to the half-gloom of the midnight hour.<\/p>\n

Our NEPI hosts held a kind of mock\u00a0s\u00e9ance where they commanded, in a slightly passive\/aggressive tone, the spirits to appear.<\/p>\n

I think if I were a spirit I would have taken umbrage at such a tone; I would probably have packed my ghostly bags and gone to the Edinburgh Fringe!<\/p>\n

Sadly, there were no spirits to be found, and the tour of the main house concluded.<\/p>\n

We were taken across the courtyard to the kitchen.<\/p>\n

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Apart from the ghost hunters and hunteresses, there was no-one around. And there were no pigs heads.<\/p>\n

I leaned against the range (in the background of this shot) and actually fell asleep, standing up, whilst another attempt was made to contact the dead.<\/p>\n

Maybe the line was down; contact failed.<\/p>\n

About half-past midnight the ghostly tour wrapped up.<\/p>\n

It was, if I’m honest, a fun evening.<\/p>\n

The NEPI guides could work on their patter, but the way they delivered what they did was charming.<\/p>\n

The settings were, actually, lovely.<\/p>\n

And, during the\u00a0s\u00e9ance, I got to hold the hand of a girl I had never met before.<\/p>\n

Whether one is a believer in ghostly goings-on or not, it’s a night out. It beats an early night in bed with a mug of tea and a bar of chocolate.<\/p>\n

But only just.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very late on Saturday night I went ghost-hunting. The venue was a manorial house, the seat of a Scottish estate, less than 30 miles south<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","two-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brennigjones.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}