Discover Mysteries and Hauntings of the Isle of Wight. Maybe the World's Most Haunted Small Island.
Half the World's Population Believe in Ghosts
Why? Ghostly encounters happen in lots of places, all around the world. Most towns and villages have a spooky old building with a haunted reputation, generally due to tragic events. Lots of people have a personal ghost-encounter story that transformed them from sceptic to believer.
People who suffered loss from a recently-deceased loved one sometimes relate unexpected experiences soon after, of sensing and seeing a presence as if their lost beloved came to say a final "farewell". Some of the deceased, including the not-so-recent, show up in photos and more lately, CCTV footage.
Ghosts have haunted humanity since anyone can remember.
Atmospheric Photographs
Among the latest explanations for ghostly phenomena is a relatively modern theory - ghosts are 'atmospheric photographs'. Scenes imprinted into a site and its surrounding environment. The ghost is caused by an intense emotional moment imprinted by human drama into the location's electromagnetic mix.
A form of memory-movie that can be picked up by someone of sensitive disposition, or unluckily passing through the wrong place at the wrong time.
For example, Carisbrooke Castle. A ghost sometimes is seen roaming its high battlements. Island paranormalists believe it is the unhappy soul of a doomed king of England Charles I., imprisoned here for a year in 1647.
During his time in Carisbrooke he attempted two escapes, and failed. Wrote a book entitled "Majesty in Misery". What happened to him after was a trauma so horrifying most assumed it sufficient to cross the ghost-forming threshold required to create an atmospheric photograph. Trauma so bad, it imprinted the king onto the battlements.
Where he remains to this day, haunting through weather fair and foul.
Most Haunted Small Island
Local paranormal experts claim the Isle of Wight is the world's most haunted small island but it has competition.
Weighing in with a hefty claim to that title is Poveglia in Italy, Venice’s cursed isolation isle for plague victims, 160,000 dead and buried. Countless more lost minds and lives in the asylum housed on the small islet. But the Isle of Wight is bigger and probably suffered worse.
Undoubtedly among the world's most beautiful islands, the towering glory of west Wight and Alum bay, the awesomely picturesque sub-tropical Undercliff, to mention a fraction of the Isle of Wight's scenic wonders.
The tiny island in Venice's lagoon is beautiful too, but at a mere 7 hectares is miniscule compared to the 380 square km of Isle of Wight.
Ghost Island
The Isle of Wight's location close off the south coast of England has attracted countless attackers and invaders and a brutal 7th-century extermination event which saw the loss of three quarters of this island's inhabitants.
Unfriendly with extreme prejudice, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans, French and Spanish slayed multiple generations of Wight folk. Tuberculosis, plague, shipwreck and disasters since the stone age burial tombs were dug, must bring the total to an unhealthy but winning host.
Wednesday Addams would holiday here.
Afterlife Options
Sometimes more sometimes less, roughly half the world’s population believe that when we die, we die, all that we are is snuffed out in a dark oblivion of nothingness. You and I, our family, friends and neighbours will be no more than gift-box dust or worm food six feet under.
Quite rightly, most people prefer not to think about it but many assume continuity in one form or another. Some believe in an instant ascension, others expect to wait until time tolls the day of Resurrection. A few anticipate the Zombie Apocalypse ready with Kataklysm soundtrack loud in the headphones.
Current favoured holy books don't say much about ghosts being atmospheric photographs. The Bible has no mention of spirits of the dead sticking around to haunt the living. Everyone is quiet asleep waiting for the Day of Resurrection at the end of time.
The supernatural is divided into three categories: Holy Spirit influence; helpful angels and unhelpful demons. The ghostly figure on Carisbrooke Castle battlements must come into this last category.
The other explanation for ghosts is they are people, just like you and me. Not sleeping but awake and trapped in time. 'Atmospheric Photograph' may account for some forms of ghost but not all.
Few people realise how commonplace it is to become a ghost.
Ghost Hunter Margo Williams
Isle of Wight psychic Margo Williams worked in this line of enquiry. Psychically gifted since childhood, in her middle years an illness awoke an extra sensory gift of hearing and seeing beyond normal range. She made use of this talent to help people trapped in time.
Margo found a way, and discovered different kinds of ghost.
Margo Williams provided the best documented evidence to prove the existence of ghosts. She recorded what they said and found their treasures. Tested and independently confirmed by scientists and film crews, her data confirms this island’s sombre ranking honour might be deserved.
Isle of Ghosts
Margo worked in this island's most haunted houses and public buildings. Even tracking down the lonely lost out in the wild fields and forests, quite literally stuck haunting a trinket piece of their poignant past.
She noted their last words before the departed, departed. What they had to say about their own experience of life and death is a call to mindfulness, especially of the gap that exists between dimensions. Funny, touching, hopeful, angry comments from ordinary and extraordinary folk.
She welcomed anyone who wanted to watch or work, out on rescue and ‘digs’ as she called them. Occasions when ghosts indicated there was something important lost or buried, keepsakes or other treasured possessions.
Nothing theatrical about what Margo Williams did, only a warm-hearted down-to-earth openness in helping those who needed it.
She worked without fuss or expectation of reward, asking only for her bus fare in travelling to the site. She helped many people with her extraordinary gifts. The living and the dead, if that is how we choose to think of them.
Ghost island it probably is. Welcome.
Thank you for your company on this short tour of Isle of Wight mysteries and haunting. If you would like to know more about Margo Williams' investigations in Carisbrooke Castle and other matters of life and death, read this book. Now available from Amazon.
