The Oxford English Dictionary defines an Odyssey as, ‘a long and eventful or adventurous journey or process.’
My aim over the coming weeks and months is to embark on such a journey across Yorkshire searching out the spookiest and most enigmatic places in the hope or capturing something inexplicable to intrigue those who read my reports and to convince me that there are, in the words of Hamlet to his friend:
“…more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt off in your philosophy.”
Hamlet, act 1, sc 5. 1.166
But as the OED suggests, an Odyssey can be a process as well and I would like to think that during my travels I will learn something about ghosts and hauntings through continued reading and empirical evidence. Those who have read my musings on the unexplained on Jules’s site may have noticed that I’m not big on ‘experts’ when it comes to the paranormal. If the evidence doesn’t fit the theory then change or abandon the theory. The trouble with the paranormal is that the evidence pulls in every which way. This doesn’t mean we should discard reasoned argument and debate but there is something to be said, for now and again, taking a step back and marvelling at the wonderful mysteries that are ghosts and hauntings.
I want to have fun too and try to convey that sense of fun to the reader. It is a mad activity this paranormal research in the field. I will get wet, cold and tired. I will experience nothing in many locations. I may get discouraged at times. But I will continue because it’s what I have always dreamed of doing. I’m hoping to be amazed, awestruck, and yes, even frightened.
Follow me on this journey into the biggest and most varied of counties, Yorkshire, where the landscape and historic buildings tell a thousand stories and the past may well come back to visit us from realms we can only dream about.
Toby