A minor flap has arisen on the BBC website following the posting of a photograph taken in the attic at Berkeley’s Jenner Museum. Captured by BBC photographer Chris Sandys on a panoramic camera, the image shows what museum director Sarah Parker has described as ‘a figure reclining in a chair’. Yes, look through the doorway … that’s where it is. Of course, in true fashion there is no chair for the figure to park itself on!

Click on the image to enlarge it and you can get a better look at the spectre’s features. Undersized head, huge waist, fantastically long right arm. Not too human now, is it? Another example of pareidolia, the mind looking for familiarity in otherwise random data. So, ghost it isn’t!

However, what exactly has caused this? Consultation with two professional photographers backs GPFI’s initial consideration that the apparition is the result of light ‘dragging’, created by accidental movement of the panoramic camera. In this case it is possibly more pronounced as there are two individual light sources within the image (back room and camera room), together with what appears to be a reflection in the back room.

Who says GPFI never does anything of any practical use whatsoever? Daniel Hammersley and some students from the University of Gloucestershire got in touch about the alleged hauntings in Prestbury, Cheltenham with a view to producing a short documentary piece…

Forget Easter and the hijacking of a Pagan ceremony. Put the eggs to one side. Far bigger news is sweeping the county. According to maybe wooly jumpered and sandal wearing archaeologist Dennis Price, Jesus has visited Gloucestershire.

Not recently though. Speaking to The Forester Price put forward his theory: ‘There’s more than a passing chance he visited Gloucestershire, especially the area around Clearwell. Clearwell had mines that were being worked in the late Iron Age which is precisely the time when legends place him here. I don’t doubt it for a moment.’

So what makes Price think Jesus stumbled into the Forest of Dean? Well … ‘From what I can see, Jesus effectively goes missing at the age of 12 and reappears at 30 and he’s unrecognisable to those who should have known him best.’

Ah, okay. Umm. So why did he come here? Price elaborated whilst speaking to Radio Gloucestershire: ‘I think what he was doing here was working, as the legend suggests, and taking sanctuary in this country from the Roman threat in his homeland. As he reappeared at the age of 30 with his ministry - which he clearly hadn’t formulated by the age of 12 - then it simply seems to me that he spent a lot of his time here planning what he was going to present to the world when he went back home.’

Err, right then. Do we have any evidence for this beyond a whim? Says Price, ‘I strongly suspect that if anyone starts digging very carefully around certain areas, in Glastonbury and possibly in Cornwall, even in Wiltshire, that some might come to light. I don’t think it’s unthinkable by any means.’

Right then. You mean there is no evidence.

Next…

Easter holidays are upon us, and what better way to pass time with a 19 month old child than to take him on a day out? Get some fresh air and have some fun. Number one choice of the local farm park had already been done by relatives and so we headed south to Wraxall and Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm.

Founded in 1999 by farmers Christina and Anthony Bush some 125,000 now pass through its gates each year, lured by the prospect of seeing zoo animals within a more open environment. Rhinos, deer, apes and giraffes are attractions along with an ‘animal show’, hedge maze and adventure playgrounds. It’s clearly somewhere designed with children in mind and after a short while you start to get the message that ‘design’ is actually a very common theme at Noah’s Ark.

The penny began to drop after seeing the sign to the right. Read just below the title: ‘Birds’ feet are very varied. They are beautifully designed for their function.’ It’s one of those pieces of wording that would probably pass most people without raising any concern, but if you recall your science from school you will be aware that birds’ feet evolved. Design suggests someone or something having gone out of its way to deliberately craft something for a purpose. Another sign states that one particular species of animal (can’t remember what, exactly) was ‘given’ a specific feature; again, a reference to some kind of deliberate design. But the real give away is the sign by the gibbons which boasts ‘30 reasons why apes are not related to man‘.

Yes, the Bush’s are creationists. If you’re not familiar with the term, these are religiously minded people who really do believe that mankind was created in the image of a god. To be fair, I had been warned in advance that the Bush’s were religious people, yet I wasn’t expecting creationism … or, more specifically to Noah’s Ark, recolonisation creationism related to the Christian God.

So, you may be asking, why are they featured here? Well, GPFI is interested in anything which suggests a paranormal or supernatural explanation for any event. Consequently, creationism and its various forms are on the agenda. Yet the zoo farm’s marketing material makes no reference to the recolonisation creationism thread which runs through the attraction. This is a ploy which some minority religious movements have used elsewhere: advertise an event or attraction. Once people are through the door start to raise the issue of a particular religion or religious belief, whether they like it or not. If it’s the latter then you don’t have to come back. Perhaps I should have done my research beforehand as I have since found Anthony Bush addressed the ‘hidden message’ tactic in a September 2008 article on Thisisbristol.co.uk:

‘You come to a zoo because you want to go to a zoo, but while you are there you might have questions you want answers to. That is why we do not want to publicise the whole creationism debate, because people have pre-conceptions. We are reluctant to publicise that we are Christians. If people knew that, they would make their minds up before they came. Other zoos say that apes are our closest relatives. But we are unique. We are made in the image of God. That is what needs to be taught in schools.’

Sadly for Mr Bush (and happily for anyone of a rationalist perspective) the government are of the opinion that there is no space for any form of creationism within the scientific portion of the National Curriculum. Clearly, it is deemed acceptable to try and mix religion with science and pseudo-science in a privately owned attraction. But there was more to come.

Having divided three hours between a whistlestop tour of the animals and much greater time with the play equipment, one year old eyes become heavy and grizzles begin. A visit to the conveniences revealed an adjacent exhibition dedicated to the story of Noah’s Ark. Curious, we stepped inside and personal bemusement turned to great annoyance. Centre-piece was a sizeable model reconstruction of Noah’s Ark with animals striding aboard or settled into their bare living accommodation. Elephants, fine … but dinosaurs?

Now that’s a hugely liberal interpretation of the fossil record to suggest man walked the planet alongside dinosaurs!!!! Unfortunately I wasn’t mistaken and wall mounted signs relay a creationist view of the planet’s history and evolution. Utilising bad science (see here for a sound alternative) and some rather bad reasoning (check out the ‘proof’ of the existence of Noah’s Ark to the left … hey, there is no evidence for the ark but I believe it is true and I can’t explain it so God did it), the Bush’s subscribe to a form of creationism which proposes the planet’s origins are far more recent than conventional science would have us believe.

They refute the scientific fact that today’s creatures descended from common ancestry, instead opting for the Biblical idea that God made animals ‘according to their kinds’, some seventy or so, including the dinos, if you believe the Mr & Mrs Bush. Yes, dear old Noah got pairs of them onto his ark and set sail as God set to trashing and reshaping his creation. From here Mr N began to recolonise the planet whilst an element of evolution was allowed to ensure diversity. Of course, the fossil record apparently shows this; it’s very clear from the display that God seems to be a convenient filler for any gaps in the fossil record!

Shortly afterwards I was able to express my concerns directly to Christina Bush whilst she served in the shop. It must have been quite a scene: a perplexed, upset father talking religion and evolution whilst holding a child with a large toy bee in his grasp! With fairness to Christina she came across as patient, polite and genuine in her beliefs, yet I do not feel she adequately addressed my point. My essential argument is not unreasoned: I paid to visit an attraction with my son, not have pseudo-scientific creationism put to me. Of course, the quote above from Mr Bush explains the tactic of keeping it a secret, but whilst my child is not even two years of age I am aware that older children visit the attraction. And so do school parties, again with the creationism element well hidden on the zoo farm’s literature (although not having attended a school visit I cannot state whether children are exposed to recolonisation creationism during such trups). Essentially, the public are being exposed to some rather unscientific and blatantly untrue ideas dressed up as facts. As a provider of education does Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm not possess a moral obligation to deliver the facts to its paying customers?

In response it became clear that Christina’s view of ‘facts’ is very different to that proposed by contemporary scientific consensus. She claimed a number of scientists do support her viewpoint, yet being a scientist does not automatically render one to be a proponent of the scientific method or sound reasoning. She also pointed towards a case in which alleged human footprints were found alongside dinosaur tracks, something even my extremely limited knowledge of archaeology and geology considered suspect. It is likely she was referring to the Paluxy case, long since blown away by decent investigation as misinterpretation and maybe even a hoax.

Christina was quick to state that she isn’t a scientist, her views were her own and that I was entitled to my opinion. This is fair enough to a point but faith and scientific fact are two very different things. In my opinion it is disinformative to dress up a matter of faith in the veil of poor pseudo-science and attempt to pass it off as scientific fact.

In hindsight it would seem I am not alone. The British Centre for Science Education suggests that children leaving the zoo farm will have been:

1. Messed around with bogus science that even the creationists don’t agree with.
2. Exposed to the undermining of their religious education by an Anglican [Mr Bush trained as a CofE lay reader] who contradicts the position of the Church of England on evolution.
3. Told that their science teachers are completely wrong, and proselytised to by a commercial farmer.

The peculiar thing is that by so blatantly trumpeting their chosen brand of creationism to paying customers the Bush family are potentially alienating them. I have returned to my preferred destination for the day on numerous occasions, but as another visitor said to me whilst examining the replica ark, ‘I don’t understand why they’re doing it. I know people who have been here, didn’t like the religious stuff and haven’t come back.’

Perhaps too late for inclusion in another local folklore tome about to hit the shelves, Spencer’s Deli has become the latest building in Gloucester to make the papers for possessing a resident ghost. Speaking to The Citizen (6 March) owner Lee Spencer told of ’stock jumping off shelves, a hob which switches itself on, taps which don’t work filling sinks to overflowing during the night, and pinching the back of his mother-in-law’s legs’. Ideas that this was a spook harbouring an issue against the in-laws were scuppered by visiting clairvoyants who ’say there is a four-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl in here, as well as a priest.’ Then again, perhaps said holy man is making up for his lack of action from his living days. Actually, why are we even going there? The word of a clairvoyant is disputed at best.

It seems that earlier in the year Lee got in touch with Tewkesbury based believers Cosmic Conspiracies to do a ghost hunt at the property. According to the paper they ‘found "orbs" in photographs they took, which they say indicate a presence. They also photographed a shadow crossing a room.’

Fortunately the power of the internet means we can examine such claims in detail. Let’s start with the orbs. Despite what Cosmic Conspiracies may say on their website, there is almost certainly nothing paranormal about orbs. In fact, the people who believe in them tend to be either uninformed as to photographic theory (not as unusual as you may imagine within the ghost hunting field!) or prefer to believe they know better. Maybe even both. Learn more about these pesky little blighters here or here thanks to Theorbzone.com and the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena respectively. And if you still believe they’re paranormal then you’re acting in denial of the evidence.

 And now the mysterious shadow. Make that shadows:

1. Head here and you can see what happens when a camera flash is obscured … yes, you get a shadow. In fairness, Cosmic Conspiracies recognise that it could be an infringing finger, but they still play the ‘could it be paranormal?’ card. Oh, those poor little lost boys.

2. Better still, they have also apparently captured a shadow person! For educational purposes its worth reproducing the in which one of the CC peeps is ’seen standing in a doorway which leads into the next room.  The shadow appears to be stood right in front of him, even though the room extends outwards from his position.’

Says team member, ‘this pic is bugging me. How can a shadow be in a door way? A shadow can only form on a solid object like a wall or floor, etc.  Also, it’s facing me.  You can tell this by the shoes. You can see laces on them, and then the shadow is starting to super impose onto me showing itself on my trousers. The shadow is also slightly taller than me. What is also interesting is if this is a shadow it had a slight pink tinge to the hands. All together strange. I think its a shadow-person for two reasons: my shadow should be either on the back wall, or on the floor. Also, the shadow is really black compared to other pictures in the series.’

So, how can a shadow be in a door way? Well, consider the possibility that the shadow explanation is incorrect. In fact, GPFI is positively sure a shadow is not responsible. The cause should be all too apparent if you look closer at the window visible through the door way. Notice there’s two of them as well? No, it’s not a ghost window. The phantom window and figure are no more than a photographic artefact caused by slight upwards movement of the camera when the photo was taken. Look at the kink in the trousers adjecent to the man’s left knee. Exactly the same. Additionally, GPFI just does not see how it can be claimed the shadow’s shoes are pointing in a different direction; this is just an example of wishful thinking.

Not having investigated Spencer’s Deli GPFI cannot comment with great certainty on its alleged ghosts. In other words we can suggest it’s almost certainly people getting the wrong end of the stick, but to say it’s certainly utter bollocks would be disingenuous. Such ‘hauntings’ are often the cause of unrelated events being linked by witnesses seeking a paranormal explanation. Things over balance on shelves. People forget to turn off switches. Others play tricks. Individuals experience muscle spasms - those in the calfs have a range of explanations. Just mind those blood clots…