Music, Witchcraft and the Paranormal by Melvyn Willin

Author:Melvyn Willin [Willin, Dr Melvyn J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4463-5791-0
Publisher: David & Charles
Published: 2012-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

On investigating an arm chair belonging to the host, he found several buttons which when depressed produced music from different parts of the house. When the owner of the house was confronted with this discovery he replied: “… I’ve had a lot of fun meeting all sorts of interesting people … I’ve never claimed it was ghostly music; people came, heard the music and told me it was ‘paranormal’” (Underwood, 1996, p.10).

Some genuinely reported cases may have had a similar origin without the witnesses’ knowledge. Mistaking natural sounds for paranormal music or even distant radios and other music sources certainly allowed further cases to be included in the literature. However, there are examples where none of these explanations would seem to be acceptable and one has to question whether music with a paranormal origin was occurring and, if so, from where it originated. An example is the alleged music from the site of the Battle of Edgehill during the English Civil War. Rogo believed that such music was impossible to prove: “When a person hears transcendental music, it is impossible to verify that the percipient did actually hear it” (Rogo, 1972, pp.18–19). He was convinced that the music could only be heard inside the percipient’s brain and did not rely on an external sound source. Therefore, it could not be recorded. However, he did not believe that it was manufactured by the brain but that it existed in a different dimension from that which human beings can perceive with their ‘normal’ senses. Medical conditions do not seem to explain percipients’ experiences. Sufferers from hearing problems (tinnitus, etc.) are acutely aware of their deficiencies and would be unlikely to confuse paranormal music with their ailments. One such case was brought to my notice in 1994:

“One night as I was settling down to sleep, I became aware of hearing music. I suffer from tinnitus and thought what a pleasant change it was to hear [instead of] the usual rushing water and whistling that I usually get. It sounded like an orchestra … I can only describe the music played as heavenly …”

(Mrs B. Murkoff, published in Enigmas Magazine,

November/December 1994).

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