Category Archives: My thinking…

Not so spooky but creepy goings on on a Lighthouse

The ghost that I met on Flatholm was the only psychic event I witnessed connected to Lighthouses but there was another occasion…

When I was transferred to Les Hanois Lighthouse in the Channel Islands I the Principal Keeper gave me the usual look around the place, familiarization with the equipment and was given the history of the place:

There was even a hole in the woodwork of the bunk which I was reliably told by the PK was caused by the bullet after it passed through the soldier’s head.

A lovely tale which I relayed to new arrivals over my time out there. I don’t think that it was absolutely true but I was glad a little while after I arrived when I was able to move to a different bunk!

Spooky Goings on

A number of years ago I was working on Flatholm Lighthouse on an island in the Bristol Channel. From this lighthouse we kept a watch on an automated Lightship some 5 miles away, we did this by observing her position on a radar screen every hour or so. The radar equipment was sited in an old store cupboard attached to the Engine Room.

Whenever I checked on the radar, especially at night, I felt that I was not alone in that room, there was a presence there of someone full of curiosity and wonder as to what I was doing in that room and what the machine I was looking at was. All this made me feel uncomfortable and discombobulated and a bit chary of going in that shed.

It then occurred to me that there was a presence in that shed that felt as uncomfortable as me.

I was what is called ‘Clairsentient’ I couldn’t hear spirits like someone Clairaudient or see them like a Clairvoyant but I could certainly feel their presence. I did some research and probing around that room and met in a corner of it the Spirit of a man standing there feeling very confused and worried about what was going on. I know he had been dead for a long time from before the Lighthouse was electrified, he may have been a Lighthousekeeper, that I am not sure about, but for some reason he had taken up residence in that shed and avoided the rest of the Lighthouse complex. I suspect he felt safe in there and by staying there could avoid contact with all the modern gizmos around the place, he had been able to do that because the shed had only been used as a glorified broom cupboard for decades and he was in there on his own.

The turmoil and upheaval of putting the radar machine in there caused the old boy much distress and when it was fully installed his solitude was destroyed and he spent his time cooped up with this machine of which he knew nothing and understood less. It was no wonder he cowered in the corner while this bleeping, flashing monster dominated the room and his life.

One night while I was on duty I crossed over to the shed to check the radar. I explained to the room and thereby the man what a radar machine was and how it worked, I told him it was nothing to worry about and wouldn’t hurt him and over that duty period and my next night watch I explained it all again and even told the old guy how to look at the screen and how to identify what he saw there.

I’m not sure of how much of what I said he understood but from then on the disconcerting feeling of fear and confusion that had filled that shed evaporated and I felt no qualms about going in there again.

BEING WHAT YOU WANT TO BE

I was reading a post on Facebook a little while ago where the poster was trying to give comfort to people with depression and anxiety by saying that they needn’t be too harsh on themselves as they did not choose to be so affected by their emotions. A nice comforting sentiment but not totally true.

Depression is called the illness of the past because we become depressed about something that has happened to us. Anxiety is the illness of the future because we become worried/anxious about something that is going to happen to us ‘We think’ .

Anger is the illness of the present as we become agitated about something that is happening to us in the here and now.

In my experience both as a Therapist and a sufferer of depression it is by our own choice that we endure it ,and the same goes for anxiety, it is our choice to put up with it.

The best, although difficult way to treat these inflictions is to accept that you’ve got them but to decide that they are no longer helping you, thank them then ask/tell them to go.

Depression is a reaction to an upsetting or distressing event and as such shuts down the brain and body to give you the chance…to force you to take the opportunity…to withdraw from life around you and to sit quietly whilst your mind works out how to cope with the outcome of the negative event that you’ve just experienced. The process of the mind adjusting to the loss takes about 2 weeks; not 2 weeks from the tragedy or whatever but 2 weeks from the time you tell yourself, or behave as though, you are depressed. Some people, most people can stay in the depths of depression for years by continually reminding themselves that they are depressed. Stop saying it, stop behaving like it, and it will go within 2 weeks.

Anxiety is trying to protect us from danger and threat, particularly from a threat that may take us off guard. It pays special attention to our peripheral vision, physical, social and psychologial, where. it assumes, threats lurk around and loom over us.

The reasoning for this is that if something is in our central vision, dead ahead of us, we can work out how to deal with it , either fight it or run away from it (interestingly in the jungle and other wild places lions , tigers and other carnivores know that only food runs, so flight is not a real option, we would have to find a more effective way of dealing with the danger.

We can do this by bringing the ‘threat’ or anxiety provoking situation into our central vision ; focus on it, although doing so could increase or sense of harm in the short term once the object is in full view it becomes less of a threat and becomes a problem which we have to deal with.

To be continued…

IDENTITY POLITICS etc

Communism is the ‘Electrification of the Soviet Union’ was a statement attributed to Lenin, or one of his chums, about the means or aim of achieving the ideal Communist state. Alas he decided that the only way of doing that was by tyranny and instilling fear in the hearts and minds of the people.

But, in principle, he was right, the rejection and removal of the old ways of thought and of a hierarchical society based on class, privilege and superstition should and must be done away with and replaced by a scientific, rational society. He thought that this was a position to be worked towards but required many years of sacrifice by the people. Dissent and disagreement were punished severely, but it was all in a good cause!

With the eventual demise of Soviet communism in the late 1980s and the weakening of social democracy in the west, the socialists or the ‘Left Wing’, if you will, turned their backs on the working classes who had achieved a level of satisfaction with their lot as their conditions seemingly improved. Capitalism appeared to have triumphed in it’s struggle against socialism which had no way, apart from through revolution, to win that fight. As was said of the miner’s leader Arthur Scargill during the prolonged, and inevitably doomed, miner’s strike in the 1980s ‘the trouble was that Arthur came between the miners and their wages. Socialism sought equality and ‘enrichment’ for the nation, the proletariat as a whole, whereas the aspirations of the working man were essentially self orientated hence the satirical song of the worker:

THE WORKING CLASS CAN KISS MY ASS

I’VE GOT THE FOREMAN JOB AT LAST.

Socialism as a political force began to die out, even the UK Labour party, supposedly socialist in its philosophy, adopted or adapted to private enterprise and the end of nationalisation. The two main parties of the left and right of British politics drew closer to each other until some of their policies were almost identical.

The Socialists, the Left Wing , needed a new cause to champion and they saw this opportunity with Identity politics and Transgenderism.

The ‘philosophy’ of Postmodernism that was increasingly adopted in the late 20th and early 21st centuries with its rejection of science, rationalism and objective truth in favour of Individualism and ‘Lived Experience’ meant that personal choice and self identity became the way forward. The activists for this way of thought adopted an aggressive attitude towards those who dared to challenge their logic. They claim that it is possible for a man to become a woman just by claiming that he is one. Once he declares he is female he does not have to look, behave or think like a woman, he does not have to possess or demonstrate any femininity but must be treated like a woman and can use female only spaces and join in women’s sports. Anyone, including women, who object to this are accused of misogyny.

Although these activists are called ‘Left Wing’ they have little or nothing in common with political Socialists. I feel in a bit of a bind myself as a political ‘Left Winger’ because although I agree with Left Wing policies about equality in the wider community I am a firm believer and advocate of there being only 2 sexes and genders based on one’s genetic and chromosomal structure from conception.

If a man wants to put on a frock and call himself Deirdre that is fine but if he asserts that by doing so he merits all the benefits and legal rights of being a woman then needs to be brought to book and be made to face the reality of his biological sex.

Poverty is a matter of nurture not nature, it is not innate within a person but is the effect of the society that person lives in. Sex and gender is a matter of nature not nurture, you are born what you are and the society around you cannot change that.

Think about it.

Identity Politics

The Western world seems to be going to hell in a handcart.

The Left Wing Establishment (actually the middle class ‘intelligentsia’.. the so called ‘chattering classes’ in Days of Yore.) appears to be ignoring the aspirations and needs of the working classes and to be actively sponsoring cultural anarchy.

One of the areas that are being used as a battlefield is that of gender/sex.

This elite are doing this by campaigning for the acceptance of Diversity in all aspects of daily life (except in Thought). If anyone should hold and dare to express an opinion different from that that meets the approval of these Left Wingers then woe betide them as the full wrath and ire of this clique will be vented upon the opinion maker. It is very similiar in attitude to that of Fundamentalists of all religious beliefs and the Puritans of the 17th century. “I am right, so you are wrong; you are evil and must be punished for not agreeing with me.”

Now, if a man wishes to wear a dress and call himself Deidre then good luck to him I say but if he then claims that he is a woman and always has been one with all the rights and privileges of being a member of the female sex then there is a problem as he is not, and could never be, female. To give that same ‘opportunity’ of changing their sex to 16 year old children is ludicrous. A young person/adolescent can change their self-identity at the drop of a hat and change it back again just as quickly. these children are not allowed to vote, to drive a motor car, to buy a drink in a pub, to get married without parental permission or to leave school (in the UK) yet it is okay for that child to ‘change’ their sex. It is tantamount to child abuse to encourage them to do so.

To prey on the psychological and emotional insecurities of a teenager and lead them into a lifestyle that will cause them trauma, physical pain and discomfort for the rest of their life is a great failing of the ‘adult’ having and exhibiting responsibility for the welfare of the child.

Think about it.

Meeting an Old Friend

Usually at this time of year I read Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ although sometimes I cheat by watching ‘Scrooge’ with Alistair Sim, a great film and a great actor.

Have you seeen the 1935 film ‘A Christmas Carol’ with Seymor Hicks playing Scrooge? A truly evil and nasty Scrooge, ell worth the watch!

But this year I have just got hold of and started to reread ‘Cat’s Cradle’ by Kurt Vonnegut a book that I last read some 30 or more years ago. What a wonderful book it is to be sure. I will tell you more about it when I have finished it.

JUST GET ON WITH IT!

I have got into a right pickle with writing my book. I thought arrogantly that I could write it without outlining or plotting it beforehand. silly me! SILLY SILLY ME!! I am somewhat belatedly having to reconstruct the darned thing; but it will be worth it because what I have written so far is pretty good, but to paraphrase Eric Morecombe, I have written all the right words but not necessarily in the right order!