UFOs and the paranormal with Malcolm Robinson: Ghosts - some of my own experiences

“The technologist who says that these things cannot be so because my instruments do not show them to be so, invites the answer, ‘then build a better instrument’.

“No true scientist would be guilty of such arrogance because he or she is always searching for a better understanding of ourselves and the cosmos. Only the bigoted believe that they per se know it all. The open minded realise that we know practically nothing.”

Michael Bentine.

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My previous articles may have made me seem like a debunker on ghostly sightings, nothing could be further from the truth, because as a researcher into the paranormal with over 35 years of experience, it’s clear to me that ghosts are very much real. For now, I would like to give you a few ghostly experiences from my own early years which added fuel to the fire of my growing interest on matters pertaining to ghosts and poltergeists

PRESENCE IN THE KITCHEN!

There was the time when I experienced something strange in my kitchen - this time it wasn’t my wife’s cooking!

It was the late 1970s (1978 or 1979) and I was employed by United Glass Ltd, a manufacturer of whisky and beer bottles in the town of Alloa Clackmannanshire, Scotland. I regularly used to talk about my interest in matters pertaining to UFOs and ghosts to my work colleagues and on this particular day I was in deep conversation about matters spiritual with an elderly workmate.

We were discussing life after death; did people really survive the death of their physical material bodies? I explained to my workmate, that if he cared to look at the evidence then he couldn’t fail to be impressed by it.

My workmate’s reply to my bible bashing statements was: “Look Malcolm, I’m not too sure about all this life after death business, but I’ll tell you this, whenever I die, if it’s at all possible, then I’ll come back to you and you’ll certainly know about it.”

“Yeah right,” I replied.

A few months later I arose at 4.45am to start at 6am for my dayshift at the United Glass plant. The house was dead quiet and still. I was busy preparing my breakfast all alone, my family still being sound asleep, when suddenly I became aware of a ‘presence’ behind me in the kitchen.

I can’t really explain it; I just ‘knew’ or rather very strongly sensed that there was someone standing behind me.

It was an unmistakable feeling. I can still sense that feeling now, the hairs on the back of my neck were up and goose pimples raced up and down my body. I very slowly turned round not knowing what to expect only to be met with... nothing, just the usual kitchen chairs and table etc.

No person was visibly there. And yet I could still sense this presence only feet away from my face.

I spoke: “Who’s there?”

But my question was met with silence. Gradually this sensation that was with me slowly diminished and was completely gone and everything appeared and felt normal again.

I set off for work and upon arriving at the men’s mess room, I was met with a room full of sad faces. I said, “What’s the matter with you lot then?”

To which one of my work colleagues said: “I take it you haven’t heard then!”

“Heard what”, I replied.

“Wee Bobby Smith died last night.”

With these words, shivers ran down my spine. For wee Bobby was the elderly workmate who only a few months before had said to me: “When I die, and if it’s possible, I’ll come back to you and you’ll certainly know about it.”

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“LOOK AT ME ROBERT, LOOK AT ME”

I remember my parents telling me when I was growing up that one of my aunts was quite gifted as a psychic medium and that there was a history in our family of certain family members being interested in things supernatural. I often wonder if this fascination that I have for those self same things have rubbed off on me somehow.

As young boys, our parents regularly took my brother and I on visits to see our aunts and uncles (usually on a Sunday) and a lot of these visits were spent quite frequently at my gran’s house (on my father’s side).

She was a lovely woman who had plenty of time for everyone and was always fussing around my brother and I.

I grew quite attached to my gran and looked forward to those Sunday visits. She was however, getting on in years and time took its course and eventually she passed away. She was a great loss to the family and a good few tears were shed at her passing.

Now my father was never a great believer in things spiritual and used to scoff at such stories. However, a few months after the funeral my father took my brother and I aside and told us of quite an incredible experience that he’d had.

He told us that when we had all visited his sister’s house in Saltcoats Ayrshire on holiday a few weeks ago, (this would be around 1967 when I’d be ten years of age) he had retired to bed, had switched the light off the room of course was then enveloped in darkness. He found it difficult to get to sleep and was tossing and turning.

Suddenly he became aware of a brightness in the room and then he heard the unmistakable sound of his mother’s voice. She called out, “Robert, Robert, look at me, please look at me, I’m perfectly fine, I just want to say good bye.”

Now my father knew full well that this was indeed his mother’s voice, but how could it be? He had helped bury her a few weeks previously.

The room was still flooded in this beautiful warm soft light and his mother was still asking for her son to look at him.

With trepidation my father slowly pulled back the covers from his eyes and looked towards where her voice was coming from. And there, enveloped in a beautiful warm glow was his mother, large as life standing at the foot of his bed wearing her favourite apron.

She smiled at him and slowly dissolved in front of his face. In telling the story to my brother and I, my father said that it was indeed his mother, he wasn’t sleeping or dreaming this.

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So dear reader, the above is but a few of some of the things that have happened to me as a youngster, all of which have fuelled the interest and desire for me to continue my interest in matters relating to the paranormal.

At the end of the day each and every one of us, are continuing to learn. We read, we listen, we view information and take in images from a diverse range of media sources whether they be factually correct, or factually ‘incorrect’!

How many people have seen God - I mean actually have seen God? Not many I’m sure, yet millions across the planet believe in him.

What I’m saying is, belief in something does not necessarily mean that it’s true or untrue. More people have seen ghosts and UFOs than have seen God.

That said I am not implying that God does not exist.

We know so little about ourselves and the universe around us. New research is opening up new horizons of science.

The quantum world is an area of which I’m sure we will be discovering more and more about as the years roll by.

Many of the science books written years ago are now old hat.

New discoveries in science and medicine change those books and yet discoveries in the paranormal and UFOlogical sciences are often laughed and scorned at, simply because they appear outlandish and crazy.

Let us not forget we imprisoned Galileo for saying that stones fell from the sky, (we now know them as meteorites) but at that time the scientists of the day heaped scorn on Galileo for even suggesting such a thing.

Of course ghosts are real, but the big question is, in which department do they belong? Are they evidence of a life after death or are they some form of psychic manifestation of which we have yet to properly categorise?

One thing’s for sure, there is no denying that people see ghosts and I welcome readers’ personal experiences and or/ any photographs you may have regarding ghosts.

Till then, sleep well.

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(c) Malcolm Robinson. Author Paranormal Case Files of Great Britain (Volume 1) (£15 includes P&P) more details from [email protected]