The Highland Hotel

An exorcism

© Brian Allan 1999 Updated 2007

Foreword

Many researchers in the field of paranormal research describe what they term as a defining moment, a sudden flash of insight that finally presents proof of another reality and an alternative to the physical world we inhabit. In my case the defining moment arrived during this particular investigation when I confronted an elemental force that could not be readily explained in rational terms. I was also forced to think long and hard about the nature of human perceptions and how they relate to life after death.

The Highland Hotel - An exorcism

The case itself concerned the Highland Hotel, situated in the picturesque Stirlingshire village of Doune, where the owner at the time, Theresa Lea, had experienced a series of bizarre occurrences since she took ownership of the establishment in 1990. The hotel, which dates back to 1789, was originally much smaller, but over the years the building next door was assimilated, finally becoming the hotel as it is now. On a preliminary visit I was welcomed by Teresa who gave us me tour of the hotel and explained what had transpired. There have been quite a variety of phenomena, which include the following: Theresa’s husband has seen the figure of a man in the bar beside the gaming machine and there are various cold spots throughout the premises, although in such an old building there is always the possibility of draughts. Another male figure, apparently wearing overalls, was seen entering the toilets while they were locked, and on checking they were found to be empty.

Teresa has heard her name called several times while alone in the hotel; this was verified on one occasion when the only two people on the premises were her and a friend, they both heard this happen. On another occasion, again while alone in the in the hotel, Teresa saw the figure of an old woman looking at her. The figure was leaning over the handrail of a short flight of stairs leading to the attic and not surprisingly she felt rather alarmed, but the apparition quickly faded from sight. She thought that the figure looked very like a previous owner, a Mrs. Clapperton, (as it turned out it was not). On another occasion, a guest in room five awoke early one morning to find two shadowy figures moving around in the room, but they did not seem aware of her even when she challenged them and according to the guest they simply disappeared. More pleasantly, Teresa has occasionally noticed a light, flowery smell while in her own quarters, but the family dog seemed unnerved, becoming quite agitated in one of the upstairs bedrooms where it stood shivering and barking at a point in mid air. Last but by no means least, Teresa’s daughter saw the figure of a man leaning over her while she sat relaxing on a couch in the sitting room, she was quite naturally alarmed and screamed, the figure drew back and disappeared into the wall.

Shortly before I left the premises that evening, as we drank tea in the owners lounge, something happened that was equally alarming. While we sat in the lounge chatting Teresa phoned her daughter to clarify what had happened when she saw the figure. While she did this I suddenly experienced feelings of intense unease; the silence closed in on me like a physical pressure on my ears and my senses became heightened and acute. I felt very cold although the fire was lit, the central heating was on and the room was warm. I forced myself to relax, but my gaze was drawn inexorably to a corner of the room just behind Theresa’s left shoulder. I de-focused my eyes slightly and stared into the corner; I could just discern a tall, dark, hazy, human figure that gradually increased in clarity and solidity, but I felt a sudden irrational sense of panic and made a conscious effort to mentally ‘shut down’ as I was totally unprepared for an encounter like this. Fortunately the figure slowly faded and the sensation of pressure eased then finally stopped. Shortly after this I thanked her for her help and made arrangements to come back with two psychic mediums to progress the investigation. Teresa has made it clear that she did not want to remove the presences; she just wanted to know who they were. 

As I left the premises I could not quite shake off the sense of foreboding and unease, and this continued as I drove home, so much so that at one point I spoke aloud in the and asked whatever may have been there to leave. The following day I contacted two first class psychics mediums, AnneMarie and Jim Lochhead, and made arrangements to visit the hotel again, which, in the event, turned out to be quite a revelation. We set the date for November 9^th, 1999 and after we arrived and the formalities and introductions were out of the way we began the investigation. Due to the nature of the manifestations we decided to use both audio and videotapes to record any events, Jim also used a 35mm SLR still camera with an electronic flash gun. Moving upstairs we entered one of the bedrooms where AnneMarie made almost instant contact.

She sensed the spirit of a man in his early fifties who was afraid that we were going to send him away before he had completed his self-imposed task. His poignant, lonely mission was to wait for his grandmother and take her with him to the afterlife; she had raised him and he missed her and he felt that could not leave until she could accompany him. He was confined to the room and the area immediately outside the door and seemed quite happy to stay and wait there. I suppose he would wait forever for this old woman who had cared for him as a child. He was no danger to anyone and the encounter was really quite sad and quite touching, the perfect example of a ghost with a mission. AnneMarie and Jim tried to reassure him and we left him to his eternal vigil. This of course raises many questions regarding both the nature of time and the apparent lack of contact between discarnate entities, but more of this later.

By contrast, the other attic rooms proved quite calm, still and peaceful and from there we went downstairs, and as we descended the mediums paused and said that there was something there, but it was confusing so we left it for the time being and went on to the hotel laundry room where AnneMarie almost immediately felt two presences in this area, a man and a woman; she felt that the man was used to hard work, outside work. Jim sensed that the man had a long thin face with straggly hair, a man of the soil, a farmworker. The woman on the other hand was quite small and seemed frail in comparison, but nonetheless was a hard worker. AnneMarie felt that the woman had thin hands; she sensed her wringing out a washing cloth then scrubbing, and her hands were always in water. She sensed that the two spirits were related, a brother and sister, and that this part of the building had originally been their home. The bedroom adjacent to the laundry was their former living room and it was probable that anyone staying there would, given the right circumstances see them, but there was no sense of harm or malevolence. It should be pointed out that we were now in a part of the building that had formerly been the dwelling next door and this could explain both the former function of the rooms and the presence of these entities.

The entity on the stair

The two mediums were drawn back to the stair, and pausing for a moment AnneMarie sensed a great deal of negative energy emanating from this area. There was also a sense of anger and resentment and as it transpired this was an understatement; Jim followed AnneMarie and passed her on the stairs. Halting at the top he turned and paused, he felt a strong sensation that the entity resident there wanted him out of the area. AnneMarie invited me to come and experience the sensation. At no time on any previous investigation had I sensed anything of this magnitude and I can only describe it as sensational. It was like walking into a huge freezer, the feeling of intense cold was so abrupt it was like crossing a line. There was also a strong sensation of pins and needles on my face, and oddly I felt quite elated. I asked AnneMarie if she could cause the entity to materialise. She was unsure, but asked if I would like the sensation to intensify, I quickly agreed. Almost immediately the sensation of coldness became a steady breeze; I felt my hair moving and the prickling increased. The medium asked the spirit to calm things down, “Back, back, go back,” she requested, the sensation decreased to its former level. Abruptly AnneMarie turned to me, saying, “Private is private, it’s not for discussing”, that’s the old lady speaking, she’s really annoyed at us being here, she wants us away, she doesn’t like us talking about her”. Both of the psychics felt that this presence would be better moved on as it was drawing negative energy from someone in the hotel. The mediums added that the entity was so resentful of our presence that if it were any stronger it would literally push us off the stair and I had no reason to disagree with them.

AnneMarie had the distinct impression that the negative energy came from the client Theresa herself. She could possibly be having some problems, (an assumption that proved remarkably accurate and was communicated by Mrs Lea in a private conversation with the medium) and the entity was feeding on the negative energy being generated. She sensed the name, ‘Maggie’, and was certain that this was the name of the entity. She was certain the reason for the strong presence was because ‘Maggie’ wanted to take revenge on someone and wasn’t prepared to go until this happened. She sensed that this ‘someone’ was her father and was certain that he had made Maggie have an abortion. Bear in mind that at the turn of the 18^th century there was a terrible stigma attached to being an unwed mother and this sort of ‘remedy’ was commonplace, especially in rural areas. Despite how the unfortunate female might feel there was enormous family and social pressure to maintain the facade of being ‘respectable’. I asked why the entity was present on the stairs in the first place and was told that she had died there, she had fallen down the staircase and broken her neck, it was the last thing she remembered and because of the physical trauma she was grounded there.

I was still recording all of this on video and backed away from the stair to get a shot of the team, as I did so AnneMarie sensed the presence descending the stair so I trained my camera on the lower treads. There, in the viewfinder, I could discern a shape, an outline on the second step and it was about two feet high, it appeared to be ‘condensed darkness’, there’s no other way of describing it. I called out to the others but unfortunately they could see nothing, the vision lasted for five or six seconds then dissipated quite quickly, I fervently hoped that this was going to appear on the tape. After some discussion, we decided to inform the proprietor, Teresa, of the situation and in the circumstances, despite her earlier wishes let her choose whether or not she wanted the entity removed. To complete our investigation of the premises we went back to the lounge where the mediums quickly detected another presence, this time of an old man who AnneMarie could see looking out of the window. There was no trace of danger or malice, she felt that he was lonely for company and enjoyed being in the room when there were people there. Teresa soon joined us in the lounge where she discussed the situation with the mediums, after some thought she decided to have ‘Maggie’ moved on to the next stage of her existence.

The Exorcism

The four of us went back to the stair, Jim went to the top landing and AnneMarie remained at the bottom and I stood approximately half way up; AnneMarie closed her eyes clasping her hands as if in prayer. The temperature dropped quickly and for a few moments nothing else happened, then AnneMarie told us that Maggie didn’t want to go, she still wanted to exact her revenge. At this point the psychic decided that she would attempt to take us all back in time and attempt to reunite the energy matrix of the poor woman with her baby, she described as allowing her ‘guides’ to escort Maggie through the portal of time and the effect was very odd but exhilarating. Subjectively the temperature seemed to oscillate wildly and we all experienced some odd smells, earthy but not unpleasant, a bit like the smell of hay and horses, farmyard smells. Suddenly the medium told us that Maggie had found her baby and would be prepared to go now, which she evidently did, because the temperature immediately stabilised at the comfortable, ambient level of the rest of the hotel. The effect was truly remarkable because I did not actually need AnneMarie to tell me that the entity had gone, I felt it happen and the sense of relief was palpable; the impression of foreboding and menace had completely gone.

We returned to Teresa who had remained in the lounge and were able to tell her that the unhappy entity had now been released and was at peace, she seemed happy about this. She was also pleased that the other entities had been identified as posing no threat to anyone. I was also able to obtain an explanation for the puzzling and unsettling impressions that I had experienced on my initial visit. This rather unpleasant entity did not emanate from the hotel, but according to Jim and AnneMarie, had been attracted to us that night because we had inadvertently ‘opened ourselves up’. It is the psychic equivalent having a party with all the lights on and the doors open for everyone (and anyone) to drop in. This type of unwanted happening serves to demonstrate that this is not a subject to be taken lightly and the same thing can happen, with unfortunate consequences, when using a Ouija board without adequate supervision.

Conclusion

This was a truly astonishing investigation where I experienced the almost indescribable sensation of being in direct contact with what is in effect the energy field of a spirit. The image I had seen in the camcorder viewfinder unfortunately did not appear on the tape; AnneMarie explained this by saying that I had asked for a materialisation therefore I was the one who saw it. This leads one to speculate on which level this phenomena operates, there are several theories based on frequency, resonance and electromagnetic (EM) fields, although the relevance of EM fields is difficult to quantify, so it’s pretty much a case of taking your choice. If the presence of EM field is associated with the presence of discarnate entities, the question must be why? 

One school of thought suggests that since everything in this universe comprises EM energy of a variety of forms, then manifestations of ‘spirit energy’ is but one example of this, and if so it may well generate its own EM field, although at what frequency is totally unknown. It can also be argued that consciousness itself is electromagnetic in nature, or electrochemical to be more precise since there are many hormones and other chemicals (neurotransmitters) involved in the process. Apart from the entity, ‘Maggie’, we did see some anomalous ‘extra faces’ appear on footage shot in the lounge. These are very puzzling and can appear virtually anywhere, particularly once you have been sensitised to the phenomenon. They can take many forms and some of them cannot be simply dismissed as random collections of pixels. They are clear and unmistakable faces, not just subjectively but objectively too; other people, sceptical and otherwise, can see them immediately with absolutely no prompting or other assistance.

One interesting aside to what occurred in the hotel was the apparent irrelevance of time, especially in the case of the poor soul waiting for his grandmother; According to the mediums time has no relevance in the afterlife, and this might well be the case if one considers the nature of localised space/time that only has any significance to anything that is enmeshed in the remorseless process of entropy. If everything, especially anything physical including the human organism, must eventually run down and stop whether through decay or any other process, then obviously it is well aware of the passage of time and must always factor this in to anything it does. This prospect is also evident on a cosmological scale, even the stars themselves will run out of fuel eventually and, one by one, shut down and die. On the other hand, consciousness, once created, is not necessarily constrained by these factors and may well be virtually eternal.  

The reason why there is no obvious contact between some of the entities on these different planes of existence is often attributed to the nature of the ‘other side’. By analogy it is claimed to resemble the layers of an onion, each layer is discrete and overlapping, but not in direct contact except with the entities inhabiting that particular layer. While this may explain some of the anomalies it does not explain them all as was demonstrated by the results of the ‘Scole Experiment’, where the human researchers were in contact with a whole team of discarnate researchers form the ubiquitous ‘other side’. The spirit researchers were scientists who were able to pursue their calling in the afterlife and communicate with one another and more importantly, this realm too. It has become increasingly clear that as I work with medium we may well be approaching the phenomenon from different, although related, angles. One of the points of convergence/divergence is basic and involves the very vocabulary used. Since all parties are concerned with truth and proof we both explain identical happenings in the terms we find most acceptable, they describe exactly the same thing but the words are quite different and carry different nuances and implications. We are not in disagreement about the existence of the phenomenon, but only in how to express it.

A warning

Another surprising aspect in this investigation was the number of presences in the hotel, all at peace with the exception of ‘Maggie’. Even then there was no immediate threat to anyone, but over time that could have changed due to a gradual build up of negative energy. As a footnote to anyone attempting to contact the departed the following should serve as a word of warning; following the encounter with the ‘uninvited entity’ on our first visit, I believe some part of it attached itself to me. A few days after the incident my wife and I experienced an unpleasant, strong smell just inside our livingroom door. It occupied a clearly defined area of about one metre in diameter and was nowhere else in the building. My wife was annoyed and puzzled; I had my suspicions, but in order not to alarm her I said nothing.

A day or so later, just prior to the arrival of a visitor, I opened all the doors and windows in an effort to disperse the stench, but all this achieved was to move it into the kitchen. I mentioned this to the visitor who said that it reminded him of stagnant water. After he had gone I again attempted to remove the smell, but this time using a different, non-physical, method. Feeling rather foolish I addressed the empty living room; I asked the entity, or whatever it was, to leave, saying that it was upsetting my wife and I and that it should not be here. All I can say is that the smell vanished instantly, right there and then, there was no gradual fading away; it just ceased abruptly like a switching off an electrical appliance.

What the particular series of events produced were two exorcisms instead of just one. While they were relatively minor incidents they were nevertheless very real and in both cases, fortunately, the entities left very quickly, but it is not always so. The following morning my wife commented that the smell had gone, but it was not until some time later that I explained how I had done this, a coincidence? I don’t think so.