Case History

In 1982, my young family and I bought a Victorian terraced house in East London. It needed a lot of renovation and I did the majority of the work myself after finishing work in the office. On one occasion, I got carried away with some plastering and ended up staying in one of the back bedrooms on the floor amongst all the builders' debris. In the middle of the night I was woken up from a shocking nightmare and felt the very real presence of someone else in the room. In my youth I travelled all over the world and have no fears about where I rest my head. I spent the rest of the night in another room and slept perfectly soundly.

A month later, my visiting Japanese esoteric monk friend came to stay for a few days. At breakfast on the first morning, he declared that there was a ghost in his room (the same room that I had felt this presence) but that he had talked with him and helped him return to the spirit world. He said that he was an elderly man, a bit of a hermit and slightly simple and angry. The monk made no big issue of it, simply declaring that all was well now there and indeed, the room felt a lot more inviting.

Several weeks later, while in casual conversation with the next door neighbour, I discovered that the previous occupant of this particular room was indeed an elderly bachelor who kept himself to himself, rarely communicated to others and had the habit of talking to himself in the street and shouting to people.