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Chapter 1: What was it like for Shirley to live with a poltergeist?
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79% kokee, ettei tule nähdyksi hakiessaan apua terveydenhuollosta. Asioita voidaan tehdä myös toisin. Jokainen ansaitsee tulla nähdyksi terveydenhuollossa. Pihlajalinna.
Ihmisen kokoista huolenpitoa.
In the first stage of a poltergeist haunting, the entity will confine itself to making noise, as if it's testing its victims, like a jailer softening up a prisoner. This can last days or weeks, but the effect is to disorient, terrify, exhaust. And that is when the second stage starts.
Dad, look. Molly, the chair. The chair's moving. That's not possible.
Donald, please stop it.
Oh, dear God.
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Chapter 2: How did Harold Chibbett begin his investigation in 1956?
Yes. Yes. Episode two, Shirley.
So this episode, we're going to hear the testimony of the real life Shirley. But first, let's go back to Monday, the 12th of March, 1956, as Harold Chibbert sets up camp at the Hitchings house. General equipment, camera, thermometer, spare notepads, spare pens, sleeping bag. How long are you expecting to be here, Mr Chibbert? Chib, as long as it takes, Wally.
I've told Mrs Chib not to expect me much. Now, if you don't mind, the final ghost-hunting essential, a cup of tea. Milk, two sugars. Coming right up.
You're quite weird, aren't you?
Pardon?
Turning up at people's houses, sleeping in the kitchen, not getting paid. Why'd you do it?
Listen.
I don't hear nothing. For once.
That nothing is filled with the voices of the dead, desperately trying to make contact.
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Chapter 3: What were the first signs of paranormal activity at 63 Wycliffe Road?
I didn't want to bring their memories back, if you know what I mean. Shirley's 80 now. She looks very different to the dark-haired teenager in the old newspaper articles on the case. But she hasn't lost any of her sharpness. So how do you feel about it now? I feel very different now. I'm not that scared little girl anymore. I am apprehensive. that it could bring Donald back.
I was first introduced to Shirley two years ago, and I have been obsessed with her story ever since. Today, we're chatting on a crisp autumn morning. She's sitting armed with a cup of tea prepared by her husband, Derek, and she's ready to tell you her story. So, number 63 Wycliffe Road, just a very ordinary-looking house from the outside. But inside, something extraordinary happened.
Oh, it was horrendous. It really was. I wouldn't want that back again, ever. I don't know what I'd do. You're laughing there, Shirley, but this has affected you in a big way, hasn't it? Yes, yes. If you had to sum up the effect this has had on you, the impact it's had on your life, what would you say? I'm sorry that it happened because it took all my teenage years. I didn't have a normal life.
I had life up until it happened and from there on until it went, I didn't have a life. I just existed. Tell me about 15-year-old Shirley. What was she like? At the time, I'd just left school and I was looking forward to going to art school. I was a bit arrogant and, I suppose, a bit precocious because I was brought up as an only child and spoilt rotten by my mother. What do you think? About what?
My new gloves. Mum bought them. Do you think I look like Marilyn Monroe?
Or like Graham back in a nursing base.
Checking old Codger's prostate. Mother! Here's to Bob. Don't tell your dad.
Yeah, I heard that.
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Chapter 4: How did Shirley describe the objects moving in her house?
Don't get into trouble, young lady.
Am I? Oh, yeah, and avoid the boys with the tight trousers.
Oh, God.
Thanks, Nan.
I had loads of girlfriends, we had the local town hall and because my adopted brother John worked there he would get us tickets for like the local hop night and I would go with four or five of my friends to dance, to jive to the latest music.
Look at you, my gorgeous girl. Growing up so fast. Gonna leave me soon, aren't you? Your old crippled mum.
Never.
Liar. I remember when I was your age, nicking off to meet your dad. I could dance then. And we had proper music.
That old black magic has me in its spell. That old black magic that you weep so well.
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Chapter 5: What impact did the haunting have on Shirley's childhood and family life?
So Kieran and Evelyn, Chib said that he wanted to get to know Shirley. We're doing that here. What do you make of her?
Getting to hear her voice was incredible. It's a real gift that she is still with us and we're able to talk to her about it. But for me, really, the key thing was that talking to her now, in her old age, she was so afraid that she thought that even talking about it might bring him back. She was so terrified. She thought they were going to die. That is immensely traumatic.
Kieran, Going back to your hardcore sceptic status, did you believe her when you were listening to her? Yes, 100% I did. And that's the thing with paranormal testimony. The majority of the time you're dealing with individuals that genuinely believe this is happening to them or has happened to them.
To pick up on the trauma stuff, let's talk about it just in terms of the parents and also the grandmother's reaction personally. to the phenomena, there is instant fear from them. And we know from recent research that actually you can have vicarious learning of fear. Evelyn, listening to Shirley describing the banging, did anything leap out at you?
Yeah, definitely. One of the standout lines of her testimony is, he kept it up, not it, he kept it up.
This kind of personification of them taking the noises and not just attributing it to a person, but to a person that has a gender or a personality and then eventually a name, is quite interesting because at what point do you go from thinking the noise is created by an object or even a small animal to he? There's a real conscious kind of jump there. And Karen, they've got this...
sense of this this presence in the house well i think that's a natural reaction to the fact that you've got something that is invading their home and the fear will be creating those physiological responses which will be an increase in heart rate it'll be increased blood pressure or lung capacity sweating all of that which gear you up to fight or flight and
If that is continually happening, that can be detrimental to your health, but also can affect your perception. So we know from decades of research that our perception can be altered and influenced by things like fear, anxiety, but also lack of sleep.
There's an idea that comes from a research from McLean in the 60s that we have an instinctive brain called the lizard brain and kind of a reasoned brain called the monkey brain.
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Chapter 6: What evidence do experts provide regarding Shirley's experiences?
Mum? I was looking the other way. Very funny, Cheryl.
It wasn't me. Everyone's knackered.
I know you like attention, but... Oh, shut your mouth.
Shirley. I'm not being accused like that. I'm bloody well not. We do not say bloody.
She couldn't have thrown it. Then maybe it didn't hit you. Are you saying I made it up now? I'm saying things don't fly through the air. I'm going to work. This house is starting to do my bloody head in. So, Shirley, what happened next? After about a couple of weeks, things started to fly around the room. Things were thrown everywhere.
Pots and pans that were on the kitchen stove in the next room would come flying out the door, floating, and go across the room and speed up. They would suddenly come towards you. You'd dodge them. Sometimes they would hover and then go down to the floor. Other times they'd hit bang into the wall.
Screams
Shelley, any story like this requires us taking the word of the person it happened to. That's right. So I'm going to ask you now, for the benefit of everybody listening, for the hardened sceptics out there. Yes. You saw heavy pots and pans fly through the air in your room. Yes. Yes. What else then? Dad's slippers that he kept by the fireplace would walk round the room on their own.
That was very scary. Mum? Yes, love?
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Chapter 7: How does fear influence perception in paranormal situations?
And then they just all of a sudden dropped down. You know, how the hell did that happen? I'm hoping that already you're developing your own theories and ideas on what happened at number 63 Wycliffe Road. Or maybe you've got questions, things that you want me and the other investigators to look into.
You might be a sceptic, you might be a believer, but if you've got a theory on who or what Donald is, I want to hear from you. You can email me at batterseapoltergeist at bbc.co.uk. I'm in High Wycombe. It's an old market town surrounded by rolling hills in the English countryside, not too far from London. And I'm on my way to Buckinghamshire New University, which is where Ciaran works.
And he's got a little experiment planned for me that he says might help shed some light on the case. So Kieran, there's something about Shirley's testimony that leapt out at you. You can never underestimate fear. Fear can be so powerful that it can lead you to misinterpret often quite mundane things.
So you could be in a room, for example, and be hearing voices, hearing whispering, and immediately the fear that you have in you is interpreting that as something paranormal and potentially a poltergeist. You could go one step further and say, well,
If you had all of the impact of fear on Shirley and others in that room, and you had extreme sleep deprivation, it's not a huge leap to say that fear could actually make you think that an object is moving of its own accord. So I brought you here for this fear experiment. And what's going to happen is a number of different stages.
So we need to get your consent because you're going to be going into a virtual reality environment. Once you've done that, we have some pre-tests that we want you to do. And those are simple perceptual tests.
We're then going to put you into the virtual reality environment, hook you up to physiological measuring equipment, which will look at your heart rate, your lung capacity, and also your electrodermal activity, which is your sweat response. So basically, Kieran's about to scare the living shizzle out of me, and then he'll measure exactly what fear does to my body and mind.
One thing is troubling me, Kieran. On the wall, there's a little blue plastic box that has written on it, urine and vomit spill kit. Some people do have adverse reactions to the VR environment, so that kit is there for a reason. Oh, God. Lynn, Kieran's lab technician, helps me fill out the consent form. Be mindful to the content of the VR simulation.
For example, if you're phobic of zombies, don't play a zombie game. I'm phobic of fear. I don't know where I stand for this. Things get real as I strap into the equipment that'll monitor my fear. Is that measuring my pulse?
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Chapter 8: What conclusions can be drawn about the events at 63 Wycliffe Road?
Oh. Okay, I'm going into a room. Okay, all right, I'm starting to... Oh gosh, what was that? Into the darkness. Whoa, what did I just see there? Did I see something there? I thought I just saw something in the bathroom. Whoa, where are we going? It's gone totally dark. Totally dark now. What's going on? I can't move. My lantern's gone. I'm just stuck and I can't move. That man's behind me.
Whoa, where is he now? Whoa! What the hell is that? Whoa. After 10 more minutes of me basically screaming, Lynn rescues me. With the goggles off, I have to retake the perception tests. Kieran leads me through another door in the lab. Welcome to the Hitchings front room. Oh, wow. Oh, my God. It really does look like the Hitchings front room. He's set up a surprisingly authentic 1950s lounge.
What I'd like you to do is you're gonna stay in this room for about 10, 15 minutes. Just reflect on the experience you've had anyway in the VR. Just look out for anything. Listen for anything, yeah? Kieran closes the door, leaving me alone in the room, the lights low. My heart's still pumping from the VR experience. I find myself concentrating hard on a coffee mug on the table.
The longer I stare at it, the more I feel like it might have moved slightly since I entered the room. And I feel like someone's watching me. Maybe Ciaran is. I think that word Shirley used. Presence. But then my rational brain cracks what's going on. This is a stunt. Ciaran is pumping infrasound into the room. Low frequency noises below the range of human hearing.
Known to create feelings of uneasiness and even hallucinations. I'm relieved when he finally comes back in.
Anything at all?
I felt uneasy. I had to feel my heart going a bit. I felt like I heard some scratching. It seemed to get darker at certain points. It definitely seemed to get darker. It's interesting, when you're in this sort of environment and you have that fearful emotion, you're interpreting things in different ways already.
You've got the case in your mind, so you're thinking, well, at some point they report some scratching. Maybe that's what it is. Was there infrasound in the room? There isn't infrasound. But it's interesting that you're talking about kind of a change in atmosphere or change in feeling.
I just felt a certain moment where I definitely felt uneasy, anxious, and like there was a sudden change in the environment. And I definitely felt it got much darker at one point. It's bizarre because nothing is set up and that was my aim all along. It's just to put you in an environment to go, nothing's set up. But you have that anticipation that I might be doing something. You've got fear.
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