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STRANGE VICTORIANA: Dr. Jan explores what happened at the Haunted Murder House
Six of the men drowned, including Sir Charles Slingsby. Captain Vyner managed to save two people. The deceased were named as Sir Charles Slingsby, Messrs Lloyd and Robinson of York, Mr. Orvis, and two boatmen named Warrener. Mr. Robinson and Sir Charles Slingsby’s bodies were recovered, and seven dead horses had also been found but two other dead horses were missing. Later telegrams through the day revealed news of other bodies being found and pulled from the water.
Hints of ghostly activity at the hall began as early as Tuesday July 18th, 1911, when the Penrith Observer featured a report stating that the hall was haunted. It reported that phantom moans, groans and singing have been heard, and it was reported that it was the ghost of Stanwix Newinson’s wife, who was banished to a particular room in the hall. The Penrith Observer, dated Tuesday August 8th, 1911, featured a follow up report, stating that an eyewitness had been discovered who stated that they had seen the ghostly apparition of Lady Newinson. It was said that in his early married days he and his wife lived in part of the old hall, and one dark night he was awakened by a buzzing noise and looking around the room he was startled to see a figure in the corner. He said that she was a woman, and she was sitting, but spinand screams of men, and apparitions of horses running around the gardens into the trees. One such horse has been described as a black stallion with a white plaited mane.
around. He covered his eyes but plucked up the courage to look again and noticed that this time she had vanished. He did not dare wake his wife and tell her and he believed that she might be terrified and wish to leave the room. It has been reported that the area around the ferry site has been filled with reports of various paranormal activity including strange lights, disembodied cries
Two newspaper articles regarding Newby Hall, the top article refers to the ferry tragedy as featured in the Friday February 5th 1869 edition of The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, with the second article about the ghost of Newby Hall which was published in The Penrith Observer, dated Tuesday August 8th 1911.
CATHERINE CROWE
PARANORMAL PIONEER
Catherine Crowe (1790-1872)
investigated and wrote about hauntings in a manner we would still recognize today. Beyond ghostly encounters, her 1848 book, ‘The Night-Side of Nature’ also brought to light — a variety of unexplained phenomena. assure them there is no such thing. Our understanding may believe the latter, but our instincts believe the former; so that, out of this education, we retain the terror, and just believe enough to make it very troublesome whenever we are placed in circumstances that awaken it”.
This includes what we now call OBEs, NDEs, time slips, and ESP. The words “poltergeist” and “doppelgänger” exist because she introduced the terms and concepts to the English language. Catherine Ann Crowe, née Stevens was an English novelist, a writer of social and supernatural stories, and a playwright. She also wrote for children.
I find myself having much in common with her. There is lost history buried like the dead in a deep forgotten grave.
For decades now, I have toted how important and useful ESP training is. If one can control their mind, create a safe space to focus you will be that receptor, honing in on electrical signals from the environment. In turn, you’re charging yourself up like a battery utilizing natures DC currents to pull in what the eye cannot always see. There it is. The keyword I’m drawn to is “terror”. This is also fear. What exactly are we fearing? Are we not in control of ourselves enough to distinguish the difference between being rational rather than hysterical? Of course, there are encounters that are better off not having when dealing with the otherworldly. Yet, the same philosophy still applies. Control your thoughts and the rest of you will follow. If not, then you can increase the chance of becoming a possible energy target for those negative beings that are around us.
This is why I’ve always preached that we, ourselves in this vast field all have the capacity and ability to be a tool, a device if you will in conducting experiments.
A mix of Catherine’s teachings, a dose of nature, your own compass and intellect will far better yield data as to what we transfer into after we’ve shed our physical vessels from the earthly plane.
The below quotes by Catherine resonate truth in today’s climate:
“The ignorant frighten children with ghosts, and the better educated “A great many things have been pronounced untrue and absurd, and even impossible, by the highest authorities in the age in which they lived, which have afterwards, and, indeed, within a very short period, been found to be both possible and true”.
In our current age, I find many still struggle with the idea that we don’t go anywhere after we die. To understand this thought process — one needs to comprehend what death actual is. In order to have that conversation, there needs to be a comfortability which is where I see the problem arising.
Some topics aren’t able to be dealt with like the conversation about death — and so it gets passed off and on to another subject. Its human nature.
However, it is also human nature to be curious whether one wants to know or not. It’s still engrained in us. The harder one is in life —the less likely they are to reasoning on such matters.
We must not bury our past supernatural scholars, pioneers and scientists. In fact, graveyards are for the living. They are a waste of real estate and much better suited for farming food, trees, useful herbs and homes.
If we can grasp the concept that we’re never truly “gone”, we will be better off in society. It’s become the norm to separate out how we view death. Many cultures have their own practices. But they believe there is an afterlife.
If we only consider our bodies to be it after we pass — then we’re missing the entire concept of the truth about life after death. What makes us … us — is our personas which in term is our soul.
You will not convince all of this truth — and so for those personas they are on their own life journey which inevitably will lead to some answers once they’ve passed. They’ll get it then. They can reach back from the other side and say, “hey, this is wild over here! Want to chat”?
Alexandra X
