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Ghosts & Computers (Including The Vertical Plane)

It must do, but....*and I've had many half pints of vodka*, what spelling mistakes have I made please?
Thankyou.
Si thi:eek:
 
Devil's Dumplings

Ok, that was an unexpected attachment! I'm trying to make the connection...
 
Re: Devil's Dumplings

The Yithian said:
Ok, that was an unexpected attachment! I'm trying to make the connection...
Yes, most interesting - please elaborate, Spillage.

You can post more attachments if needs be...
 
Hey, I'm not interested in why... that sort of attachment should happen more often. And larger.
 
Sorry to all who were offended by the softcore images.
And also, my apologies for the spelling post.



Si thi!:rolleyes:
 
Nemels

and is that Nidderdale in the background of that second photograph?
 
No, it's the river Aire on a good day, (Just past Castleford and under Fairburn Ings)





Si thi!:D
 
They were ever so slightly saucy *ever so slightly*.
But I got a bollocking for them off Stu Neville,the moderator (?) *Show me your badge boy!*so had to delete them. Sorry.



Si thi

:(
 
Hi folks this isn't me speaking its my youngest son, Ben, who wanted to reply to this article.



Hi, Thanx for the cool tale guys. Chatroom ghosts are actually quite common. A while back there was a man who would go onto his computer and he would see messages on his screen written in old English. The messages were being sent by a the man who had previousley lived in the cottage but had died about 400 hundred years before!!!!
Anyway this 'ghost' described to the man details of his life in old English, so the man who was recieving them wrote a book about this other man's life. And after he had written the 'biography' of the man's life he sent it away where people who still understood old English said that the language used was very detailed and completely correct.
But people to this day still dont believe that it was a ghost who had told the man the details but instead believge that the man slipped into a trance while he wrote the book.
What do you think, was he really visited by a ghost? or was he just another one of those old men who could secretly understand old English and he put all of his knowledge into a book trying to fool everybody that a ghost had visited him and had told him the details? or do believe this story at all? But I believe it was a ghost, y'know why? Because when the man recieved this message the computer WASNT PLUGGED IN!!!!

thank you.
:eek: :eek: ::confused: :confused:
 
Originally posted by Butterfly on 'Ghosts and Computers?' thread

The man who received the communications was called Ken Webster. There was a book written about this particular haunting which also involved poltergeist activity. The communicator was I think called Tomas Wainman (or something similar). An expert in Middle English was asked to analyse the words and phrases used, to see if they fitted in with the historical knowledge we have of the relevant period. The book was called VERTICAL PLANE and was written by Ken Webster. AFAIK parapsychology experts were also called in but were unable to collect any conclusive data. An independent English language expert was unimpressed by the language used claiming that there were errors in word spellings etc. (Typical sceptic - even people in Elizabethan times probably had difficulties with spelling!)
 
A brief discussion of this case here:

http://217.206.205.129/forum/showthread.php?threadid=9074&perpage=15&pagenumber=16

And here is a link to the FT article about this
(thanks again, Stu!):

http://www.forteantimes.co.uk/articles/108_para.shtml

I found another website that hit on this case briefly --
apparently, the priest from the 1500's thought of Ken Webster
and his girlfriend (in the 1980's) as "the spooks."

I'm still trying to find Mr. Webster's book, because the supposed
communication from the 22nd Century that occurred is too
fascinating for words!

TVgeek
 
Re: Belvedere_13

------ >8 -----

text removed

----- 8< ------
 
originally posted by Butterfly elsewhere and quoted by Caroline above
An independent English language expert was unimpressed by the language used claiming that there were errors in word spellings etc. (Typical sceptic - even people in Elizabethan times probably had difficulties with spelling!)

Well exactly. There was no standardised spelling in the middle ages (hence Shakespeare spelling his own name about half a dozen different ways..taking it as read that it was Shakespeare who wrote each one, but that's a different thread entirely that I can't be arsed to look for now). I've googled in vain for copies of Wainman's actual text - anyone out there got any transcripts?

As is, from what I've read about the case, the fact that communications were received in the form of notes and chalked messages as well, and especially stuff on the monitor whilst it was switched off sounds an awful lot like straight poltergeist trickery to me (they did have a lot of "standard" polt stuff too - see the FT link TV Geek posted above).
 
Bump! Ghostly computer tales merged.
 
I do recall a TV prog a few years ago where the Webster case was exhumed, so to speak, and it was generally concluded the whole thing was a fake. A number of English language specialists investigated the text and said it was very likely to have been faked.

The story as presented was much more than a "simple" ghost tale, too. It was all based around a group of super-scientists from the future controlling the past in order to link up various places in time and space. Typical Saturday morning cartoon garbage. The SPR investigators showed great professionalism and gave up the investigation when a message told them that if they continue they would "lose their souls". AFAIK, no investigator saw anything remotely abnormal take place. Reports of messages appearing on switched-off computers, etc. were all anecdotal. Strangely, people had to leave the room before messages would appear on the computer!

I wish it were true. But it was yet another con-job.
 
Just one thing about ghosts on computers is that I have a friend with a small amount of "hacking" knowledge (must point out he doesn't use it!), and he has a readily available program which lets you control what is going on on screen of another computer. Basically if you are connected to t'internet, sans firewall, you could easily be randomly targeted for shenanigans. Moving the mouse pointer, typing things, opening/closing files all possible. So it would be nigh on impossible to say that it wasn't a random muppet messing about half the world away.

Also, due to the same reasonn never leave your web cams plugged in when not in use!!!;) :D :eek:
 
Fair dues, though... the Ken Webster case occurred
in 1984 -- there was no internet for that "floppy disk"
only computer to hook up to. If the text was pre-typed, it
had to come from a floppy -- surely they were pre-read
by someone with computer knowledge!

Don't most ghost activities occur when the person's
back was turned? Isn't that part of the experience?
The polt's "mode and modus" as it were -- to get
the most shock value from the situation.
It certainly isn't unusual that investigators don't
experience anything... that is extremely common.

I'm still interested to find out more -- in spite of
the SPR conclusion. (Surely, "losing their souls" wouldn't
be enough of a threat to make the investigators leave!?!)

TVgeek
 
Re: Ghosts and Computers

Tangnefedd said:
We own a haunted farmhouse in North Wales, the spooks just loved to mess around with our computers. E-mails using Welsh words would be sent out at all times of the day and night. When we were in, out or asleep. Often the computer was off when these messages were sent. We never have come up with a logical explanation for this! :eek!!!!:
Did you ask anybody who knows something about computers? I can think of several possible explanations.
1) Did you check your 'puter for viruses? Sending out emails from your machine is is typical virus behaviour; and a couple of years ago, there was an epidemic of a virus that took random files from infected computers and sent them out as attachments to emails.
2) If your 'puter was switched off, how did you know that it was sending out emails? Also, how did you turn it off? If you just hit the power switch to turn off your machine, there is a possibility that it could have simply been put on standyby mode instead of being fully off, so that something like a scheduled maintenance task could have switched it back on again and, if you had an always-on internet connection, allowed the virus to send out emails.

And as for the Belvedere13 case, I agree that it sounds like a UL - the chat site company could easily have traced the "ghost's" IP address - in fact, it would have been obliged to as soon as it was alerted to the "ghost", as this was a clear case of fraud.
 
I could send an email right now and set the sender address to any email account I choose. Which is exactly what the spammers do. Many viruses do this as well, which results in the sent mail residing in your email client folders. The email address isn't a good indication of where the email has come from at all, as it can be changed so easily.

In 1984 there wasn't an internet like there is today, but there was still plenty network access to be had, and virtually nil security. A modem was all that was needed. But I don't even think a modem was used. AFAIK nobody ever saw these messages appear, which should set alarm bells ringing right away. The phenomena didn't call for any way-out explanation other than a hoax. A pity the book didn't sell too well... :p
 
Spirits communicating by computer

Its just bugging me what was the story with that man getting messages from the past and future on is computer

Who was he?

What was the book called?

I know I read about it in FT and saw it in a Mysterious World type doc

I just need reminding of the particulars

Cheers
 
This was mentioned in the excellent Parragon bargain-bin book "Strange Encounters", which is basically a compilation of every major fortean event of the last 1000 years with analysis. (It's spoilt a few articles in FT for me too, though, since it's all in this book!)

Anyway, here are the basic details:

It took place at Meadow Cottage, Dodleston, Cheshire. The man involved was schoolteacher Ken Webster. The computer was a BBC-B micro and it was left on all night by accident. In the morning a poem was left on it from someone called "Tomas". He eventually said he was called Thomas Harden. I've attached a scan of the long message he left.

The SPR started investigating the incident, and the computer told them that it would give them the truth if they were willing to sell their souls, so they backed off. Ken Webster then wrote a book called The Vertical Plane about the incident.

Hope that helps
 
Thanks

It was really bugging me - I decided a few years ago that rather than letting half remembered stuff nag at me I would find answers dammit

I vaguely remember the whole soul selling business, I'm sure they could have found someone who would do it...
 
I saw the title of this thread and thought "Oh NO! not another bug in Windows" :D
 
Haha!

Mine is posessed, don't ya know, Intaglio.

It keeps connecting by itself and bringing up this forum!!!
:eek:
 
And of course the mobile phone messages appearing on a pc in the Letters page of the current FT.

And my mum's strange experience of my grandad sending her messages from the grave via Word.
 
Re: FUTURE CONTACT BY COMPUTER.

PANZER~ said:
Does anyone remember the Fortean Times story,presented by Lionel Fanthorpe on the television series,about an alleged three-way communication between a future computer operator,a person from the past,trained to use one and a couple from our time?
If you have noticed this story in the archives while researching something else,I'd appreciate a steer towards it,please?
I'm doing some research.
Best wishes,Bob.

UPDATE: I personally know the man who lives in the cottage now. He is an extremely down to earth person, in fact he is the sort of person to challenge a ghost rather than run away. Nevertheless the evidence of his own eyes has been challenged several times since he moved in a few years back. Here are two incidents which i remember off the top of my head, (i'll ask for more)

He was moving stuff from one room to another, when he placed on a bed one of those 25 meter rolls of electrical extension and a drill in a box. He went back downstairs and came straight back up with more stuff, only to find the drill unboxed and the cord completely unwound, all in a matter of 30 seconds with no one else upstairs. The next one was last week. The family were in bed, at 3AM or so, when woken by all the house lights coming on and great noise downstairs. On walking down the stairs it became obvious that the TV was on very loud and changing channels, as he entered the room the channel surfing stopped, but the TV and all the lights stayed on.

There have been other incidents, i will try to ask him when i see him.
 
Messages from the future...Via Computer...

Hello all,

I vaguely remember reading about a case from the early 80's about a couple who had moved into a house, set up their Vic20, C64, et al computer and after the first night were surprised to find someone had been leaving messages on their computer.

They received a number of messages over the following months from two people. One claiming to be from the future and another from the past. As soon as they started, the messages ended abruptly.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about here? If so, can you recall any further information about this?

Otherwise, if I'm talking tosh, feel free to tell me so :)
 
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