NHS calls in exorcist

[scorpiogirly]

That's correct.

An exorcist has been called in by the NHS to a hospice because of many paranormal incidents and sightings of the ghost of a girl in a red dress, witnessed by staff and also patients.

You'd think there has to be something in this right? And if not, what on earth could be going on?

Until relatively recently, most people died at home.

Every hospital and nursing home has its resident ghost: grey lady etc.
It’s nothing more than a bit of an entertaining story on night duty!
(Nurse of 44 years).

All 4 of my grandparents died at home!
Actually one grandma died in her chair, knitting on her knee. 15ish years later a good friend of mine bought her house. She’s never reported seeing the ghostly outline of my grandma knitting in the corner!

It's a really beautiful site, a rebuild on top of the old Children's hospital. Last year my Mum was in a small wing of this site that is actually a rehab hospital, I visited five days a week for two months and always had a very good feeling about the whole place, it is though very quiet ( even though it is bordered by two busy roads) and I can imagine at night might be a bit spooky.

PP asserted last 75 years; I know most did before that.

Most peoples spirit moves on elsewhere when they die, heaven, hell, purgatory or wherever it's meant to go, maybe reinarcared, we will only know when we pass. Only some spirits seem to get trapped for reasons unknown. Stoned tape theory as well look it up. You don't have to believe it but there are millions of people that have experienced haunting. In a hospice and hospitals these are really common, I'd imagine due to the amount of spirits leaving bodies at the time of death, the emotions and trauma. I do hope these spirits aren't 'trapped' though that seems very sad.

Personal experience doesn't reflect statistics.

Me too it's the best show

It all sounds a little silly to me. But I've known a few nurses over the years and they all have been quite superstitious. I've often wondered if thats just a coincidence.

My house was built early 1900s and has a graveyard behind the back garden but I’ve never seen anything.

Well clearly my experience as a Consultant in Palliative Medicine employed at more than one fully NHS funded hospice was a hallucination.

@LucyLoo1972

TBH that was kind of my point - I should have been clearer. 😀

Chaplains are partially funded but I’ve never heard of fees being charged for this kind of visit but I’m less familiar with the nuances of the CoE. RC priests don’t charge for house blessings on a new home/home with disturbances although it would be customary to invite them to stay for the dinner/housewarming afterward.

It is also blessings and prayers - that is all. Frankly if it gives comfort to people dying in a hospice and the staff around them I don’t see any issue. Its seems a very tabloid story for the Telegraph.

Ah, the Grey Lady at the London Hospital... certainly a popular sighting when I trained there many years ago, although I do wonder if she has been spotted on the new sites?

TBH, hospitals are a febrile environment with a lot of very young people often swept along by a low level hysteria. So, I do not find it odd that the hospice has called someone in, it will be presented as resolution for those who believe and ignored by those who don't. Either way it does no harm and may provide comfort.

Of course you are.

Absolute peak marketing by Gucci, halfway down the article with the woman in a red dress coat! 🤣

And there you go, making claims for which there is no evidence whatsoever. Everything we know about the human consciousness suggests it simply ends when the brain dies as it's a creation of of biological processes.

A quick google would tell you that 'stone tape theory' (not 'stoned tape theory') was invented for a 1972 Christmas spooky play that went out on BBC, and was written by the guy better known for Quatermass. It has no validity as a concept beyond having frightened people enjoyably on TV.

Or it is their first arrest and they don't want to be running it.

If anyone wants a supernatural top up Afterlife is old but worth a watch.

Superstitious people, often not Catholics, who have seen horror films, think a crack team of Catholic priests is awaiting their call like some kind of Ghostbusters in cassocks. They aren’t.

But it would have made an excellent episode of Father Ted 😂

We live in a cul de sac of 10 properties. In the last five years we've had five owners die.

No 3 owner died at home, Ditto number 6,, 7 , 8 and 10. Only the owner of no 9 died in a nursing home.

So five out of six died at home.

It doesn’t need to be a church employee. Sister of a friend asked a medium to call, after strange happenings in a house they’d bought relatively cheaply - former owners very keen to sell quickly!

The sister’s dh used to leave for work very early, while she was still in bed. She soon became aware of ‘someone’ in the room, and ‘sensed’ him (she was sure it was male) sitting on the end of the bed. Gradually ‘he’ seemed to move closer, so although she sensed nothing malevolent or threatening, naturally she wanted it to stop!

The medium said his name was Albert and he was an old soldier. She asked him to leave, and he left.

Oh, i hope you dont mind me asking but were you doing one of those
' nature warden ' ( dont know what else to call it ) things when you were living alone in that place for months ?.

I’ve got a carbon monoxide detector in my house. All council houses have to have them now. So I’m sure a hospice will have them.@

People absolutely do report hauntings in modern buildings and do report seeing modern era ghosts - it’s just not as compelling as seeing Victorian orphans or Roman soldiers. The podcast Uncanny, which a few PPs have mentioned, has lots of stories of people reporting very modern hauntings.

I’ve seen a modern era ‘person’ in my living room. I’ve also seen a cat before I ever had a cat. Do I believe they were ghosts - I don’t know! I know I saw them. But I can’t explain what they were.

People have a very horror movie view of what an exorcism is - it’s not the dramatic scenes of the exorcist films or demons being purged. It’s a prayer service and blessing of a space and anyone who may be ‘stuck’ there who shouldn’t be.

Exorcisms of people are very very rare within CoE and Catholicism these days but are more regularly practiced in some evangelical religions.

The Catholics pivoted to MH issues causing ‘possession’ behaviour a long time ago. The threshold to exorcise a person is very very high.
I used to work with a man who had trained as a CC priest and was apprenticed to one of the Vatican’s top exorcists - who lived his day to day life in a very small rural village in Ireland - and he very deeply believed in the possibility of people being trapped as ghosts.

When it comes to woo stuff I’m of the ‘there are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy’ bent.

It only takes one though. My mum died in my house, heard and felt nothing since, and neither has my dog (who are supposed to be more sensitive to unexplained things). And as I said before, it would make more sense if there were hundreds (if not thousands depending on its historical background) of ghosts milling about this hospital/hospice not just one little girl.

Where are all the millions of black plague ghosts?

If anyone is experiencing unpleasant or unusual things and is thinking of seeking help, I strongly recommend the CofE. It’s handled very calmly, with appropriate support and signposting. They won’t do anything dramatic or exciting. There are people/organisations who encourage your beliefs or intensify them, and make money or get publicity for their church. The C of E isn’t going do that. They don’t even publicise it among themselves! It’s very discreet 🤣.