Declarations at Arbroath

© Brian Allan 2003

Word count: 2,120

Foreword

Thanks to the good offices and persistence of former Brechin paranormal researcher Mr. Peter Neve, Brian Allan and Malcolm Robinson were invited to carry out an investigation within the ancient walls of Arbroath Abbey. This was the setting of the historic 'Declaration of Arbroath' where King Robert the Bruce made a stirring and historic commitment to his country. The investigation, which was sanctioned by Historic Scotland proved very rewarding and was undertaken in collaboration with two local psychics, Terry Salter and Graham Wylie. This was the first time I experienced any direct contact with the paranormal

Declarations at Arbroath

Some weeks prior to the investigation, Malcolm and I had listened to an audiotape containing sounds reminiscent of something heavy being dragged along a floor and what sounded like laboured breathing. This recording had been made in a part of the abbey known as the Abbots House. Pete Neve had made this recording while attempting an EVP (electronic voice phenomena) experiment during a previous investigation at the abbey when he left the recorder switched on and running in one of the rooms at a time when he know the area was deserted. EVP experiments involve leaving tape recorders running in deserted rooms in buildings known to have a history of hauntings, for some reason anomalous sounds, and often voices, have been captured on the tapes. It was only later when listening to the tape that he heard these anomalous sounds. Because of the apparent EVP, Pete decided to set up another, more wide-ranging investigation in an attempt to establish the cause of the sounds and also discover why the abbey's guides and custodians were uneasy in certain parts of the abbey. There is no proven reason for this, but it is assumed that by some means 'spirits' of the dead are able to interact with the magnetic medium of the tape to leave evidence of contact. This assumes that the entire phenomenon is based on part of electromagnetic spectrum interacting at a subatomic level with its surroundings. Corroboration for this hypothesis comes from a variety of sources, particularly instances where electrical equipment is alleged to malfunction in the presence of 'spirit entities'.

Malcolm Robinson and I travelled up to Brechin on a Friday night where we stayed overnight at Pete's house. From there we travelled to Arbroath on the Saturday morning, arriving just as the abbey opened to the public at 10 o'clock. As we waited for the psychics to arrive, we chatted to the duty custodian to get an idea of what she had experienced. These included feelings of unease in certain parts of the buildings, hearing footsteps and bumps in upstairs levels of the Abbots House and seeing vague forms moving around in some of the other rooms. Crucially, these impressions were not confined to one particular guide, but were experienced to varying degrees by them all. The psychics had not arrived so initially, she took us to a tower outside the walls of the Abbey which was not normally open to the public, in former times had been used to hold prisoners. There she showed us one of the many copies of the Stone of Destiny, which have been made over the years. This particular bogus stone, when it eventually goes on display, is designed to heighten awareness of the national significance of Arbroath Abbey in the general public.

After we had examined around the tower, she took us to a large building originally used to garrison troops several centuries ago. She explained that she and her colleague always ran through this area when locking up at night. They felt as if they were being watched and it has to be said that the large room did have a very heavy and menacing feel to it, while perhaps partly psychological, this proved to be of great significance later that day. She also took us to one of the rooms in the Abbots House where she had heard bumps and thumps whilst cleaning up on her own. The odd thing being she did not feel alarmed by this in contrast to the other more frightening feelings in the garrison area.

At this point the first psychic, Terry Salter, arrived and quickly began acclimatising to his surroundings. In the 'Abbots House' he got the impression of children running around, it was very light hearted and non threatening; as it later transpired we discovered this area had been used as a school in the nineteenth century. He also sensed other quite powerful entities, but still nothing threatening, in fact the general impression was one of pleasure that we were there taking notice of them. This benevolent impression was reinforced a little later when I had an experience myself in the old kitchens below the house,. I got four, very distinct whiffs of a light, floral, lemon smell, quite different from the damp, dusty and musty odour of the old stonework and earth floors. Since questioning revealed that no one was using an aftershave or strongly scented soap, neither was there any evidence of air fresheners or polish, the psychic informed me that this was how spirits sometimes made contact. In this case the pleasant perfume indicated the contact was friendly. Continuing on our tour of the Abbey grounds we arrived at the Sacristy, a tall well preserved building slightly apart from the main structure. On entering we discovered that due to its high ceiling it was particularly light and airy and felt quite peaceful, however, as we soon discovered appearances can be deceptive.

There was a small door in one corner of the Sacristy room and Terry felt drawn to it, he soon realised that it was a mistake. On entering, his expression quickly changed and he appeared distressed. The room was only 6 or 7 feet square, a continuous stone bench running around the walls, the only illumination was from a small barred window. Terry now looked quite pained, he said, "There's so much despair in here, absolute misery, it feels totally negative, I'll have to get out of here", which he did, quickly, and refused to go back in, sitting down in the sacristy. He was clearly upset, and told us that there was an intense concentration of confusion and negative energy in the small room. Terry asked the guide what the room had been used for in the past.

Our guide glanced at him with disbelief, "Have you ever been in the Abbey before" she asked. Terry confessed that he had not. The guide explained that in less enlightened times this room had been used to incarcerate the insane. If the afflicted person's family could no longer cope with them then they were forcibly taken away and locked up; out of sight and (literally) out of mind. As you can imagine, in those days the treatment of the mentally disturbed was less than civilised, indeed the insane were often deemed to be possessed by the devil and treated accordingly. Due to a mixture of religious zealotry, fear and ignorance it was not uncommon for exorcisms to be performed on them in an attempt to elicit a 'cure'. As a last resort and when all else had failed, the poor unfortunates were locked up in this room where they remained until they either improved or died. Although by current standards barbaric, this rough and ready 'treatment' was better than the alternative of being turned out onto the streets and treated as objects of mockery and fear and hounded like animals. On reflection it was little wonder that Terry became overwhelmed by the emotions in the room and it also demonstrates how some psychic abilities function. It is worth pointing out that exorcism is a favoured method still used today by charismatic, fundamentalist, often fervently anti-Catholic, Christian sects to drive out demons thought to be infecting members of these groups. In modern times this is called 'deliverance ministry' and the demons are claimed to be responsible for all manner of afflictions ranging from drunkenness, all manner of illness through laziness to lust. This variety of exorcism does not use the traditional method portrayed in such films as 'The Exorcist' and involves a good deal of praying, screaming, moaning, writhing and where deemed necessary, vomiting. It is possible that there is some psychological, placebo value in this traumatic practise because those 'exorcised' claim to be set free from their problems, but perhaps the Catholic sacrament of confession has the same effect.

Our other psychic (Graham Wylie) had now arrived, so after brief introductions were made Terry and Graham got down to business. We visited the area where formerly the troops were garrisoned and Graham sensed soldiers sitting at long tables eating, drinking, talking and cursing. We decided to attempt some form of communication with the entities, each of us taking up positions along the length of the large, narrow, room. We set up sound activated tape recorders at strategic points and settled down relax and meditate, each of us attempting to open communication with the spirits. This proved to be impractical due to the appearance of members of the public, which tended to break our concentration. Both Ian and Terry felt it was a priority that the soldiers be sent back to the spirit world, so to this end, they opened a 'psychic doorway' for them and asked them to go into the light. Peter who was with them while this was going on felt his back go cold, combined with a tingling sensation. Graham told Pete that all the entities had gone except for one and it was standing right behind him. Graham paused for a moment, silently urging the remaining spirit to join his comrades. He felt that this entity did not want to leave sensing that it was afraid to leave this area that had become its home. After a few more moments of mental struggle Graham was eventually able to persuade it to leave and move into the light.

Abruptly, Peter felt his back become warm again and simultaneously Graham told him that the entity had gone. This effect is often noticed by witnesses at demonstrations of psychic ability such as this, the feeling of cold in the presence of 'spirits' and the sudden warmth when they leave. The feeling is also noticed during most examples of psychic interaction. The feeling of cold may have a bearing on the mechanism by which the phenomenon takes place where energy is extracted in the form of heat to 'power' the manifestation. To test the effectiveness of the cleansing we asked the custodian (who hadn't been with us and was not aware of the ritual) to walk through the area again and tell us what she sensed. She did this and told us that the place felt better, not so threatening or oppressive any more, while this may have been due to the fact that she had company, nevertheless it is a promising indication. Leaving the Guard House, we decided to take a final look around the Abbots House to see if we could hear anything further. While climbing the stairs once again I again experienced the light floral scent, Graham told me that I should be honoured, as it was a sign that at least one of the entities present liked me. Sadly, that was the last manifestation of anything paranormal of the visit, so, after leaving the building, we spent our remaining time chatting and strolling around the Abbey grounds, which were particularly beautiful in the late afternoon sun. 

CONCLUSION

As well as being interesting from a historical point of view, this was an excellent demonstration of 'cold calling' by the two psychics. It was evident from the results that they were both able to unlock whatever energy was entrained in the building, which leads to interesting speculation on just how psychics are able to function. Is it an innate ability to read impressions left by former strong emotions somehow 'recorded' in the stone at a subatomic level? It is conceivable that depending on the crystalline structure of the stone and the silicon present in it, it acts as a form of recording device? Could it be possible that the electrical properties of the silicon and/or carbon traces entrained in the stone act as some sort of transmitter/recorder device accessible to those sensitive enough to decode it? Do psychics enter an altered state of consciousness and access realms unavailable to those less gifted? Perhaps the answer lies somewhere in all these hypotheses and perhaps in none of them, but it is the desire to find out that drives and motivates the continuing research.