History
Contents:
1. Introduction
“We have to acknowledge the progress we made, but understand that we still have a long way to go. That things are better, but still not good enough.” – Barack Obama
The purpose of this article is multifaceted, as all good articles of history are. Not only does it aim to factually tell the story of how East of Scotland Paranormal was formed and how the organisation has progressed over the few years it has existed. It also aims to interpret those facts in order to be a lesson to ourselves, and acts as an evaluation of our group’s progression so that other groups and those wishing to enter the field, may learn from our mistakes and successes. As ESP is still a living organisation this article shall grow as we keep progressing as a team.
2. The Beginning
ESP founded in October 2007. All the founding members were undergraduate students from the University of Aberdeen answering an advert put on the student notice board placed by the former team manager, Chris, a Computer Science undergraduate. Followed by Rachael, currently Team Manager (Co-ordinator and Liason). The other founding members were, Denise, Ben, Sarah, Keith and Krissy, making seven founding members. The initial meetings decided the things you would expect, the assignment of roles within the group, what places could be approached in order to get investigations and finally the name of the group. It was also established that ESP should maintain a balance between the sceptics in the group and those who believed in the existence of paranormal phenomena.
A few weeks after the foundation I (Al) joined the team, just prior to the first investigation going ahead. In all honesty this came about because the first place that the group was going to investigate was my home, that just so happened to share with his fiancée Rachael.
Looking back at our first investigation it makes me smile. It only happened in November 2007, however, it seems so long ago in terms of how our team has grown and developed in every aspect of our research and outlook of it. We did plan the investigation somewhat. This plan was very loose, we had no idea what to expect, and of course, little idea on what to do. We didn’t really know how to use our equipment, what a milligauss was (until we looked it up on Wikipedia) and why we had to record the presence of an Electo-Magnetic Field. We thought it was appropriate to use an EMF meter because we had watched Most Haunted and they seemed to think they were important, as well as orbs, they were especially important too! Yes, that is how naive to the subject we were back then; now it makes me almost blush to remember. In particular, when I think about how critical as a group we have become when finding other groups that still hold orbs, for example, as evidence without good justification as to why they are paranormal. Despite this, we did come up with some evidence. Well at least one piece of evidence that we cannot explain away with ease. That would be the EVP caught in the bedroom. EVP has since become of special interest to the team. However, since this part of the article is about past mistakes, it would be worth mentioning our fear on our first investigation when the light from our blocked off camera flashed on and off continuously creating an illusion of a shadow crossing the slit of light under the kitchen door. I don’t mind saying that at that point I was terrified; all rationality left me for a moment. We eventually did find out that it was a camera fault, but our fear wasn’t initially reported on until now, I guess because even then, we took ourselves very seriously.
3. The Great Outdoors
Our second investigation was really bad. By that I mean we didn’t even properly report on it. This is basically because we decided that it would be a great idea to try and investigate a hill on the outskirts of the city centre in the middle of an Aberdonian winter. All we learned from this is that an outside investigation is unworkable, since the scope from background noise is unavoidable as well as a constant flow of passersby looking suspiciously at us. I don’t even need to say what we learnt not to do on that investigation!
4. Contacts
The Tolbooth Investigations used to be seen as the real beginning of ESP as they were our first proper investigations. Looking back now I don’t think that was the case. Like already stated we learned a lot from those first two investigations.
We went to the Tolbooth with a solid plan with timed vigils. We even took three mediums with us! This again was a very good lesson learned. Our solid plan with the medium present quickly fell apart as we all followed the medium around as she channelled the spirits in each room of the Tolbooth. This can be fine, but if you are like me, looking for something quantifiable, it’s of little use. None of the information given came up with anything from the history; this doesn’t mean the medium was false as historical records are incomplete. It just made what she was saying could not be confirmed and therefore was moot. We decided from that experience not to take a medium with us. They already had all the ‘proof’ they needed to believe, but that wasn’t enough for us. We wanted to study. We still to this day take a medium with us on occasions. He is more of a friend of the group that comes along for interest and sometimes tells us on what he picks up on but never lets himself get carried away.
From the Tolbooth though we did make a good contact, the first piece of ‘what TO do’ advice for any group. Our contact has given us access to locations that we can investigate multiple times as well as a platform to deliver talks to present our findings to the public.
5. New Beginning
Our talks to the public and the public investigation we recently ran have been very insightful as we got feedback from the public and had to answer lots of questions we had not prepared for. It is from them and from our increased involvement with IPI and the TAPS family that has spurred on a new beginning.
Over the years the team has changed radically. From Rachael being made team manager, Al stepping up to co-lead the team with Rachael. Rachael was once labelled the Yvette of the North in a News Paper article so I guess that makes me (Al) the Karl of the North. The departure of most of our original team members for various reasons, mostly going on to bigger and better things professionally and/or moving to other parts of the UK has changed the dynamic of the group. Needless to say everybody we have worked has made a valuable contribution to the development of the team and we at ESP wish all those former members all the best in their pursuits
The team management, along with the rest of the team hope to push the group towards the research aspect of the paranormal, by conducting more research rather than merely emulating entertainment programmes relating to the paranormal.
Keep looking back for information here as the group grows and we give a honest report on how we are developing experiments and furthering our research.