July 10, 2025 • 18 mins
George Noory and paranormal researcher Andy Thomas explore his collection of stories of paranormal events experienced by everyday people, including encounters with ghosts, UFOs, and a woman who was scolded by the spirit of her dead mother.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast am on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And welcome back George Noriy with you. Andy Thomas one
of the most respected researchers of paranormal mysteries and cover
ups in the world. Author of a number of books,
including This Current Ones Strange. He writes on history and
folklore and regularly contributes to the journal Nexus magazine. Andy
is the key contributor of the Glastonbury Symposium, one of
(00:26):
the UK's best known truth and mysteries events, which has
been running since nineteen ninety. His website Truthagenda dot org
linked up at Coast Tocoast dan dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Andy, welcome back. Have you been.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Oh It's lovely to be back. Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
I've been busy, very busy, and working on the book Strange.
I mean you could argue at thirty four years as well,
but you know, at least a couple of years compiling
all of this to try to show the world that
really is something.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Going on here that we should be talking about.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I love the title. By the way, how'd you get it?
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Bus I mean, you know, you want to try to
portray the paranormal in a way that isn't necessarily spooky,
because you know this, you always get that attached to
it in the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And I thought, what's a word that might sum it up.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
That's quite sure, that looks striking, And I've thought, actually,
this is strange. It's not bad strange or necessarily dark strange.
It's just strange. And they can be all of these things.
And it seemed like the perfect title. And it was
one of those titles where as soon as it fell
into place, everything fell into place around it. We do
live in a strange world. Let's submit it, let's enjoy it,
(01:37):
let's explore it. And that's really where the book's coming from.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's a great title. Indeed, tell us a little bit
more about the title.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
So I mean, what we're trying to do was strange
is show the world that it isn't just people interested
in the paranormal that have in paranormal experiences. And I've
been really lucky because over the years I've been giving
lectures to a lot of very everyday normal people, not
just people interested in the kinds of things that we
(02:07):
would be interested in. I address a lot of community
groups people like that, and you know, they don't know
who's going to show up that day to give them
a talk.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I could be anyone talking.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
About anything, and there I am, and I start talking
about strange things. And what I've discovered is that when
you do that, people really open up very quickly with
their own tales of the strange, and you begin to
realize that a lot of people sit on these experiences
that they don't share them because they're afraid they don't
(02:38):
want people to make fun of them. When they see
somebody like me standing up there talking about it, they
open up and you suddenly.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Realize there's a world of.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Paranormal experiences here that doesn't normally get talked about. And
so that's why the subtitle of the book is Paranormal
Realities in the Everyday World, because it is happening in
the everyday world in many different ways and in many
different forms of the paranormal. But it's going on, and
it really would do everyone a lot of good to
(03:07):
talk about this a lot more andy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
How many strange stories did you come across over the years.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I mean literally, I've spoke to thousands and thousands of people,
and I mean often you know, you've just come off
the stage and they'll come up and they'll say, oh,
I've got to tell you my story, and they'll often
begin with the phrase, well, I've never told anybody this before,
but or the other phrase I often here is well,
(03:38):
I'm a bit skeptical about these things. But then they'll
tell you some incredible story that clearly they're not skeptical.
And this happens so many times. I'm had a competent
number on it. But this book could have been like
ten times longer. It could have been the size of
a phone directory if I'd have included all the different
stories that I would have liked to have done. And
(03:59):
people emailing me as well with their accounts, and some
are written accounts from people who've around the world share
you know what's happened to them, and where the comfort
comes in is learning that they are not alone. And again,
what strange does is show you you're really not alone.
This is happening to a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Andy, how did you accumulate the stories?
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Okay, So, I mean one of the interesting things is,
of course when people come up and you've got three
or four people, often you know, throwing ideas that you
have to learn to memorize me in an accurate way. Now,
if something's really important, I will say to them, could
you please email me later and tell me.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
More, And often of course they will. So that's one way.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
But sometimes, you know, I've learned to memorize what it
is they're saying. I'll put keywords into my mind as
they're speaking. So like if somebody, for instance, you know,
once saw a ghost in Santa Fe in a shop,
I immediately lash in my own mind while they're talking, right,
ghost shop, Santa Fe.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
You know, you the key words.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
And then as soon as I've left the building and
I get back into the car, I get my phone
and I dictate that story into the phone, and the
key words help me stay accurate, because I'm very aware.
I don't want to get accused of being very wooly
in the way that this is being put down. And
what I'm pleased about is often then when people do
(05:27):
then email me later on that nine times out of
ten it's ninety nine percent accurate. So I've got a
way of doing that. And then you start to accumulate it,
and then I'll write them up, and I've been keeping
documents now for years, putting all these together.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And then you stand back from it.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And you think there really are recurring patterns here, and
it's happening to so many different kinds of people, and
that makes it really exciting because it isn't just one
block of people over there, it's everyone having these experiences.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
What is it about the paranormal in the United Kingdom
that makes it so special?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
So, I mean, I should stress that the book Strange
has actually a lot of American material in it, because
of course I've been in America many times, chatted to
many people there, have spoken there many times, So there's
actually a lot of American material in the book. But
there is something interesting about the United Kingdom and certainly England,
(06:26):
which is you know where I've spent most of my time,
because of course it's so ancient. You've got cultures going
back there. Well, if you want to go back to
the Roman times, you know, two thousand years and of
course there's many tribal traditions before then. But there's a
lot of buildings here that are very old, and there's
no question, especially when it comes to ghosts, and the
(06:48):
book opens with looking at ghosts, because it is one
of the most reported things that you know, I hear
you old buildings for whatever reason, seemed to the energies
of the past more. Now, what is fascinating is that,
and I address this in the book, is that.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Ghosts don't always last for that long.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
You do get occasionally roaman ghosts or a more ancient
looking one. The majority when people see them, seem to
be dressed in what some people call period dress or
often Victorian dress, like from the last two hundred three
hundred years, and then it seems to fade away, even
if the house is older than that, which is really fascinating.
(07:32):
So I think ghosts, a lot of them have.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
A time limit.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
But nonetheless, I think the older buildings that we have here,
they seem to retain whatever it is that powers up
a ghost. And the way I look at it is
it's almost like a battery. A battery runs down after
a while, but somebody that might be in that vicinity
that is very psychically energized, and some people are more
than others, it's almost like they reactivate it and then
(07:58):
it's like that site, it sort of finds new power
and you then get more manifestations again of a ghost
that perhaps might not have been seen for a while.
So there were so many aspects to this and yes,
for some reason, especially in the United Kingdom. But I
think it is because there are so many old buildings,
it seems to hold it more here than in many
(08:20):
other places.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Andy, I keep thinking of Charles dickens Christmas Carol. Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I mean The Christmas Carol is one of my favorite books.
And I don't really mean that just because, of course
it is basically dealing with the paranormal. It was a
story that was read to me many times by my
father when I was very young, every Christmas, and it
did leave a big impression on me. And yes it's fictional.
Dickens himself, interestingly, it wasn't really that open to the paranormal.
(08:53):
He used it in his books as a way of
telling a parable But nonetheless, some of what he describes
it does tap in to classic ghost phenomena, and you know,
the strange sounds and claimking of Chains and all of this,
whatever that means. It is something that does get reported,
and he incorporates all of that into this very beautifully
(09:14):
written book. I mean, if anybody out there hasn't ever
read the book, forget all the adaptations, some of which
are not bad, but you know, go to the book
because that's where the real magic is, and certainly Dickens,
whatever his personal view, he knew how to tap in
to this idea of other world's other realms intersecting with ours.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
The original black and white movie was one of the classics.
Though you can't replace that.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Oh yeah, this does sim Yeah, I mean, that's still
very good. Not entirely accurate to the book, I would say,
but nonetheless, yeah, that's still one of the best adaptations.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
How did you get your stories for the book strange?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Well, we kind of covered this in a way because
it's me seeing all these people. So let me give
you a bit of background because I got involved in George.
You and I have chatted about this here in years past.
I got involved with the paranormal directly when right back
in nineteen ninety one, I was down in the West
(10:16):
Country of England and there were crop circles everywhere, Virtually
every other field it looked like it seemed to have
a crop circle in it, and I had been aware
of them, but didn't know that much about them.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I then started to explore them.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
I started to walk around these things, and I was
amazed because I couldn't find a single person that could
actually tell me what was going on, and that trick
of something in me, It did something in the pit
of my stomach where I felt, I've got to know more.
I need to find out what's happening here. And so
then I found out there were people researching them, and
(10:52):
I joined the research teams and what was back then
in the old center for crop circle studies, And of
course then before you know you're sucked into a world
not only of looking at crop circles, but then UFOs,
which strange covers to a large degree as well.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And then you meet.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
People that are investigating psychic phenomena and ghosts and out
of body experiences. And as the years roll by, you
get exposed to this more and more, and then more
and more people you know that you meet will recount
their experiences. And through that world I started to give lectures.
People found out that I was interested in this, and
(11:30):
they would say, hey, will you come along and speak
to our community group or whatever it might be, and
I would say yes, lovely. I mean, it wasn't anything
I ever planned to do. And before you know it,
of course, then that builds up and you're meeting more
and more people, and how strange it's why, I say,
in a way, it's a culmination of thirty four years
(11:51):
of work. You realize I need to capture what's going
on here, because it turns out that having had that
exposure to so many people, it's one of the broadest
assessments of paranormal phenomena I think that's yet been published,
because it encompasses so many different people, so many different kinds,
(12:12):
and says very clearly that it isn't just one demographic
that's being affected here. It's everyone in some of the
most unusual places you could imagine. And when I mean unusual,
I mean very normal places, which of course makes it
all the more fascinating.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Andy, what was your criteria for picking the stories you picked.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So early on in the book. I put together a list.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Of kind of the top ten paranormal phenomena that I
hear about. So when you do that, it gives you
a structure to follow, and I followed that very much
with the book. So I mean, out of interest, let's
have a look at the list. So ghosts and poltergeists,
I would say, are probably the most reported thing that
(13:00):
that's what I hear about the most. Then UFOs So
and I have met so many people over the years
who were pilots, soldier, sailors, police, you know, professional sensible
people that wouldn't just make this up, and indeed they
endangered their careers by doing that. That's perhaps changing now,
but you know, and I've been hearing this stuff for
(13:22):
many years, long before sort of the UFO phenomenon that's
now being talked about. All UAP in a large way,
really went big. This has been around as any UFO
research and those for a really long time. Then you
get out of body experiences, near death experiences, and I
do think there is a crossover sometimes there between that
(13:43):
kind of thing. Then you get into psychic phenomena of
all kinds, premonitions, incredible synchronicities, coincidences that really can't be coincidences,
whatever's going on. And then you get a category and
there's a whole chapter of the book about and what
I just called bizarre happenings that are almost so bizarre
(14:05):
you don't know what box to put them in. And
just to give you one example of that, there's a
tale that I recount in the book of a lady
who seemed perfectly saying perfectly normal to me, and she said,
I know this sounds mad, but she was driving out
one evening only a few years ago, not so long ago,
(14:27):
to meet some friends in a restaurant, and suddenly her
car was lifted up off the ground and into the air,
and she found herself flying through the air, and the
car was finally deposited a few miles away somewhere where
she didn't know, and it then came down, not with
a bumper, very gently. Now, what is going on there?
I mean, was she was this a UFO doing it?
(14:49):
Was she having some strained psychic experience? But she said,
but the car had definitely moved because her husband had
to go out and then find her later on because
she didn't know where she was. So you get stories
like that and you think, well, I don't know what
category that's in, but let's just tell it as it is,
and people have to make their own minds up as
to whether they want to believe it or not. But
(15:10):
I have not included anything that I felt wasn't quite right,
or if I felt the person wasn't stable. I haven't
included that. I've been very careful to include the ones
that I believe do have credibility, and in the end,
people will have to make up their own minds.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
As to how they feel about it. What was it.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
About these stories that goud you convinced that it's worthy
of the book.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
So I mean, I'm trying to sort of tell a
tale in a way. It's these are stories, and if
you want to be a storyteller, you have to make
it compelling, but you don't want to sensationalize it. And
I hope that what I've done is managed to share
these stories in a certain way that tells a narrative.
(15:56):
So the book opens with looking at ghosts, and it
starts with again one of the most common ones, which
is people seeing relatives that have passed away recently.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And that is so common.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Now I know what the medical world says, and I
should say the book begins by addressing the skeptic view.
I'm well aware there are certain things that can explain
certain phenomena, and the book addresses that, but equally there's
a lot of things that really can't explain and when
people meet dead relatives. So yeah, the medical explanation is
(16:30):
where you wanted to see it. So your brain gave
you an impression of that person you hallucinated because you
miss them so much. Well, forgive me, but there's people
that I've lost in my life that I would have
loved to have seen. Why I didn't see them? And
you know, I try to wish it to happen that
didn't happen to me. When you hear people describing entire
conversations with people who have appeared in the kitchen or whatever,
(16:54):
that what you find is there's normally a tale of comfort.
The person that has passed on is saying, listen, you
don't need to worry about me.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
It's okay. Although it doesn't always work like that.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
I heard of one lady recently who brought the old
rocking chair that her mother used to sit in into
her house from the care home where her mother had died.
And the one day she came in and she saw
a mother sitting in a rocking chair, looking very cross, saying.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Why did you move this chair?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
This chair should have been left where it was, And
she actually got admonished and had to take the chair
back to the care home. So it's not always a
beautiful experience. Sometimes, if you've got a certain relationship with
a certain relative, it's going to be the same even
when they plassed over anyway, but I'm just giving that
as an example.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Then you move on to other kinds.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Of ghosts, and of course there are many and the
more common types where you don't know who they are,
perhaps or saying more common, maybe it's less common, but
you know, those are the ones you hear about ghosts
coming through walls and the ones that reallyite me. And
again this raises a really important point is when you
get groups of people that have witnessed it all at
(18:07):
the same time, or couples very often, because again you
can't just say that's one hallucination in one person's mind.
How are groups having hallucinations? And indeed, then you've got
CCTV footage of ghosts and you've got all that aspect
that is not a trick of the mind. That is
something that is happening, you know, in our world, that
(18:28):
is visible and tangible wherever it may be coming from.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Listen to more Coast to Coast AM every weeknight at
one am Eastern and go to Coast to coastam dot
com for more
Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast am on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
And welcome back George Noriy with you. Andy Thomas one
of the most respected researchers of paranormal mysteries and cover
ups in the world. Author of a number of books,
including This Current Ones Strange. He writes on history and
folklore and regularly contributes to the journal Nexus magazine. Andy
is the key contributor of the Glastonbury Symposium, one of
(00:26):
the UK's best known truth and mysteries events, which has
been running since nineteen ninety. His website Truthagenda dot org
linked up at Coast Tocoast dan dot com.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Andy, welcome back. Have you been.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Oh It's lovely to be back. Thank you. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (00:42):
I've been busy, very busy, and working on the book Strange.
I mean you could argue at thirty four years as well,
but you know, at least a couple of years compiling
all of this to try to show the world that
really is something.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
Going on here that we should be talking about.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
I love the title. By the way, how'd you get it?
Speaker 5 (01:00):
Bus I mean, you know, you want to try to
portray the paranormal in a way that isn't necessarily spooky,
because you know this, you always get that attached to
it in the mainstream.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
And I thought, what's a word that might sum it up.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
That's quite sure, that looks striking, And I've thought, actually,
this is strange. It's not bad strange or necessarily dark strange.
It's just strange. And they can be all of these things.
And it seemed like the perfect title. And it was
one of those titles where as soon as it fell
into place, everything fell into place around it. We do
live in a strange world. Let's submit it, let's enjoy it,
(01:37):
let's explore it. And that's really where the book's coming from.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
That's a great title. Indeed, tell us a little bit
more about the title.
Speaker 5 (01:45):
So I mean, what we're trying to do was strange
is show the world that it isn't just people interested
in the paranormal that have in paranormal experiences. And I've
been really lucky because over the years I've been giving
lectures to a lot of very everyday normal people, not
just people interested in the kinds of things that we
(02:07):
would be interested in. I address a lot of community
groups people like that, and you know, they don't know
who's going to show up that day to give them
a talk.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
I could be anyone talking.
Speaker 5 (02:17):
About anything, and there I am, and I start talking
about strange things. And what I've discovered is that when
you do that, people really open up very quickly with
their own tales of the strange, and you begin to
realize that a lot of people sit on these experiences
that they don't share them because they're afraid they don't
(02:38):
want people to make fun of them. When they see
somebody like me standing up there talking about it, they
open up and you suddenly.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Realize there's a world of.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Paranormal experiences here that doesn't normally get talked about. And
so that's why the subtitle of the book is Paranormal
Realities in the Everyday World, because it is happening in
the everyday world in many different ways and in many
different forms of the paranormal. But it's going on, and
it really would do everyone a lot of good to
(03:07):
talk about this a lot more andy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
How many strange stories did you come across over the years.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I mean literally, I've spoke to thousands and thousands of people,
and I mean often you know, you've just come off
the stage and they'll come up and they'll say, oh,
I've got to tell you my story, and they'll often
begin with the phrase, well, I've never told anybody this before,
but or the other phrase I often here is well,
(03:38):
I'm a bit skeptical about these things. But then they'll
tell you some incredible story that clearly they're not skeptical.
And this happens so many times. I'm had a competent
number on it. But this book could have been like
ten times longer. It could have been the size of
a phone directory if I'd have included all the different
stories that I would have liked to have done. And
(03:59):
people emailing me as well with their accounts, and some
are written accounts from people who've around the world share
you know what's happened to them, and where the comfort
comes in is learning that they are not alone. And again,
what strange does is show you you're really not alone.
This is happening to a lot of people.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Andy, how did you accumulate the stories?
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Okay, So, I mean one of the interesting things is,
of course when people come up and you've got three
or four people, often you know, throwing ideas that you
have to learn to memorize me in an accurate way. Now,
if something's really important, I will say to them, could
you please email me later and tell me.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
More, And often of course they will. So that's one way.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
But sometimes, you know, I've learned to memorize what it
is they're saying. I'll put keywords into my mind as
they're speaking. So like if somebody, for instance, you know,
once saw a ghost in Santa Fe in a shop,
I immediately lash in my own mind while they're talking, right,
ghost shop, Santa Fe.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
You know, you the key words.
Speaker 5 (05:05):
And then as soon as I've left the building and
I get back into the car, I get my phone
and I dictate that story into the phone, and the
key words help me stay accurate, because I'm very aware.
I don't want to get accused of being very wooly
in the way that this is being put down. And
what I'm pleased about is often then when people do
(05:27):
then email me later on that nine times out of
ten it's ninety nine percent accurate. So I've got a
way of doing that. And then you start to accumulate it,
and then I'll write them up, and I've been keeping
documents now for years, putting all these together.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And then you stand back from it.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
And you think there really are recurring patterns here, and
it's happening to so many different kinds of people, and
that makes it really exciting because it isn't just one
block of people over there, it's everyone having these experiences.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
What is it about the paranormal in the United Kingdom
that makes it so special?
Speaker 5 (06:06):
So, I mean, I should stress that the book Strange
has actually a lot of American material in it, because
of course I've been in America many times, chatted to
many people there, have spoken there many times, So there's
actually a lot of American material in the book. But
there is something interesting about the United Kingdom and certainly England,
(06:26):
which is you know where I've spent most of my time,
because of course it's so ancient. You've got cultures going
back there. Well, if you want to go back to
the Roman times, you know, two thousand years and of
course there's many tribal traditions before then. But there's a
lot of buildings here that are very old, and there's
no question, especially when it comes to ghosts, and the
(06:48):
book opens with looking at ghosts, because it is one
of the most reported things that you know, I hear
you old buildings for whatever reason, seemed to the energies
of the past more. Now, what is fascinating is that,
and I address this in the book, is that.
Speaker 4 (07:08):
Ghosts don't always last for that long.
Speaker 5 (07:10):
You do get occasionally roaman ghosts or a more ancient
looking one. The majority when people see them, seem to
be dressed in what some people call period dress or
often Victorian dress, like from the last two hundred three
hundred years, and then it seems to fade away, even
if the house is older than that, which is really fascinating.
(07:32):
So I think ghosts, a lot of them have.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
A time limit.
Speaker 5 (07:35):
But nonetheless, I think the older buildings that we have here,
they seem to retain whatever it is that powers up
a ghost. And the way I look at it is
it's almost like a battery. A battery runs down after
a while, but somebody that might be in that vicinity
that is very psychically energized, and some people are more
than others, it's almost like they reactivate it and then
(07:58):
it's like that site, it sort of finds new power
and you then get more manifestations again of a ghost
that perhaps might not have been seen for a while.
So there were so many aspects to this and yes,
for some reason, especially in the United Kingdom. But I
think it is because there are so many old buildings,
it seems to hold it more here than in many
(08:20):
other places.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Andy, I keep thinking of Charles dickens Christmas Carol. Oh.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
I mean The Christmas Carol is one of my favorite books.
And I don't really mean that just because, of course
it is basically dealing with the paranormal. It was a
story that was read to me many times by my
father when I was very young, every Christmas, and it
did leave a big impression on me. And yes it's fictional.
Dickens himself, interestingly, it wasn't really that open to the paranormal.
(08:53):
He used it in his books as a way of
telling a parable But nonetheless, some of what he describes
it does tap in to classic ghost phenomena, and you know,
the strange sounds and claimking of Chains and all of this,
whatever that means. It is something that does get reported,
and he incorporates all of that into this very beautifully
(09:14):
written book. I mean, if anybody out there hasn't ever
read the book, forget all the adaptations, some of which
are not bad, but you know, go to the book
because that's where the real magic is, and certainly Dickens,
whatever his personal view, he knew how to tap in
to this idea of other world's other realms intersecting with ours.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
The original black and white movie was one of the classics.
Though you can't replace that.
Speaker 5 (09:40):
Oh yeah, this does sim Yeah, I mean, that's still
very good. Not entirely accurate to the book, I would say,
but nonetheless, yeah, that's still one of the best adaptations.
Speaker 3 (09:50):
How did you get your stories for the book strange?
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Well, we kind of covered this in a way because
it's me seeing all these people. So let me give
you a bit of background because I got involved in George.
You and I have chatted about this here in years past.
I got involved with the paranormal directly when right back
in nineteen ninety one, I was down in the West
(10:16):
Country of England and there were crop circles everywhere, Virtually
every other field it looked like it seemed to have
a crop circle in it, and I had been aware
of them, but didn't know that much about them.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
I then started to explore them.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
I started to walk around these things, and I was
amazed because I couldn't find a single person that could
actually tell me what was going on, and that trick
of something in me, It did something in the pit
of my stomach where I felt, I've got to know more.
I need to find out what's happening here. And so
then I found out there were people researching them, and
(10:52):
I joined the research teams and what was back then
in the old center for crop circle studies, And of
course then before you know you're sucked into a world
not only of looking at crop circles, but then UFOs,
which strange covers to a large degree as well.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
And then you meet.
Speaker 5 (11:09):
People that are investigating psychic phenomena and ghosts and out
of body experiences. And as the years roll by, you
get exposed to this more and more, and then more
and more people you know that you meet will recount
their experiences. And through that world I started to give lectures.
People found out that I was interested in this, and
(11:30):
they would say, hey, will you come along and speak
to our community group or whatever it might be, and
I would say yes, lovely. I mean, it wasn't anything
I ever planned to do. And before you know it,
of course, then that builds up and you're meeting more
and more people, and how strange it's why, I say,
in a way, it's a culmination of thirty four years
(11:51):
of work. You realize I need to capture what's going
on here, because it turns out that having had that
exposure to so many people, it's one of the broadest
assessments of paranormal phenomena I think that's yet been published,
because it encompasses so many different people, so many different kinds,
(12:12):
and says very clearly that it isn't just one demographic
that's being affected here. It's everyone in some of the
most unusual places you could imagine. And when I mean unusual,
I mean very normal places, which of course makes it
all the more fascinating.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Andy, what was your criteria for picking the stories you picked.
Speaker 4 (12:34):
So early on in the book. I put together a list.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Of kind of the top ten paranormal phenomena that I
hear about. So when you do that, it gives you
a structure to follow, and I followed that very much
with the book. So I mean, out of interest, let's
have a look at the list. So ghosts and poltergeists,
I would say, are probably the most reported thing that
(13:00):
that's what I hear about the most. Then UFOs So
and I have met so many people over the years
who were pilots, soldier, sailors, police, you know, professional sensible
people that wouldn't just make this up, and indeed they
endangered their careers by doing that. That's perhaps changing now,
but you know, and I've been hearing this stuff for
(13:22):
many years, long before sort of the UFO phenomenon that's
now being talked about. All UAP in a large way,
really went big. This has been around as any UFO
research and those for a really long time. Then you
get out of body experiences, near death experiences, and I
do think there is a crossover sometimes there between that
(13:43):
kind of thing. Then you get into psychic phenomena of
all kinds, premonitions, incredible synchronicities, coincidences that really can't be coincidences,
whatever's going on. And then you get a category and
there's a whole chapter of the book about and what
I just called bizarre happenings that are almost so bizarre
(14:05):
you don't know what box to put them in. And
just to give you one example of that, there's a
tale that I recount in the book of a lady
who seemed perfectly saying perfectly normal to me, and she said,
I know this sounds mad, but she was driving out
one evening only a few years ago, not so long ago,
(14:27):
to meet some friends in a restaurant, and suddenly her
car was lifted up off the ground and into the air,
and she found herself flying through the air, and the
car was finally deposited a few miles away somewhere where
she didn't know, and it then came down, not with
a bumper, very gently. Now, what is going on there?
I mean, was she was this a UFO doing it?
(14:49):
Was she having some strained psychic experience? But she said,
but the car had definitely moved because her husband had
to go out and then find her later on because
she didn't know where she was. So you get stories
like that and you think, well, I don't know what
category that's in, but let's just tell it as it is,
and people have to make their own minds up as
to whether they want to believe it or not. But
(15:10):
I have not included anything that I felt wasn't quite right,
or if I felt the person wasn't stable. I haven't
included that. I've been very careful to include the ones
that I believe do have credibility, and in the end,
people will have to make up their own minds.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
As to how they feel about it. What was it.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
About these stories that goud you convinced that it's worthy
of the book.
Speaker 5 (15:34):
So I mean, I'm trying to sort of tell a
tale in a way. It's these are stories, and if
you want to be a storyteller, you have to make
it compelling, but you don't want to sensationalize it. And
I hope that what I've done is managed to share
these stories in a certain way that tells a narrative.
(15:56):
So the book opens with looking at ghosts, and it
starts with again one of the most common ones, which
is people seeing relatives that have passed away recently.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
And that is so common.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Now I know what the medical world says, and I
should say the book begins by addressing the skeptic view.
I'm well aware there are certain things that can explain
certain phenomena, and the book addresses that, but equally there's
a lot of things that really can't explain and when
people meet dead relatives. So yeah, the medical explanation is
(16:30):
where you wanted to see it. So your brain gave
you an impression of that person you hallucinated because you
miss them so much. Well, forgive me, but there's people
that I've lost in my life that I would have
loved to have seen. Why I didn't see them? And
you know, I try to wish it to happen that
didn't happen to me. When you hear people describing entire
conversations with people who have appeared in the kitchen or whatever,
(16:54):
that what you find is there's normally a tale of comfort.
The person that has passed on is saying, listen, you
don't need to worry about me.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
It's okay. Although it doesn't always work like that.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
I heard of one lady recently who brought the old
rocking chair that her mother used to sit in into
her house from the care home where her mother had died.
And the one day she came in and she saw
a mother sitting in a rocking chair, looking very cross, saying.
Speaker 4 (17:23):
Why did you move this chair?
Speaker 5 (17:24):
This chair should have been left where it was, And
she actually got admonished and had to take the chair
back to the care home. So it's not always a
beautiful experience. Sometimes, if you've got a certain relationship with
a certain relative, it's going to be the same even
when they plassed over anyway, but I'm just giving that
as an example.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
Then you move on to other kinds.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
Of ghosts, and of course there are many and the
more common types where you don't know who they are,
perhaps or saying more common, maybe it's less common, but
you know, those are the ones you hear about ghosts
coming through walls and the ones that reallyite me. And
again this raises a really important point is when you
get groups of people that have witnessed it all at
(18:07):
the same time, or couples very often, because again you
can't just say that's one hallucination in one person's mind.
How are groups having hallucinations? And indeed, then you've got
CCTV footage of ghosts and you've got all that aspect
that is not a trick of the mind. That is
something that is happening, you know, in our world, that
(18:28):
is visible and tangible wherever it may be coming from.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
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