Members Only: Secret Societies, Sects, and Cults

THE GHOST CLUB

FOUNDED: 1862

STATUS: Active

EXCLUSIVITY FACTOR: Formerly, hyper-exclusive; currently, hyper-inclusive

SECRECY FACTOR: In the beginning, the club was invisible to all outsiders, but now it’s easily detectable.

THREAT FACTOR: Non-existent (literally)

QUIRK FACTOR: Ghost-hunting is not quite as funny as Ghostbusters would have you believe—these guys take it pretty seriously.

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

Today’s reality-TV viewers probably associate ghost hunting with people shrieking and bumping into walls while being followed by a shaky camera. But paranormal investigation was once a much more dignified pursuit practiced by Victorian gentlemen who did not have the benefit of night vision goggles (or even monocles). A small group of these men formed The Ghost Club: “the world’s oldest organization associated with psychical research.”

In the mid-1800s, Spiritualism—a movement fueled by the belief that the living could communicate with the dead—captured the imagination of British and American society. Séances became popular and were even held in the White House by First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. Mediums convinced the masses that spirits could speak through them, and many became famous. Spiritualism was of interest mainly to the upper classes, such as the group of fellows at Cambridge’s esteemed Trinity College, who began meeting in 1855 to discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena. This group evolved to become the Ghost Club, formally founded in London in 1862.

The Ghost Club investigated hauntings and other Spiritualist phenomena. The select group of men involved (no women were allowed) met over supper to discuss topics such as Egyptian magic, “second sight,” and their own supernatural experiences. They kept scant records of their meetings, so members were able to speak freely about their beliefs without fear of ridicule — sort of a “Spiritualists Anonymous.”

The members of the Ghost Club, though, were anything but anonymous. Due to the club’s origins on the hallowed grounds at Cambridge, many of the greatest minds of the time took part over the years: scientists, academics, politicians, clergymen, and literary luminaries such as Charles Dickens, W. B. Yeats, and Arthur Conan Doyle. This was not a club for your average schlub.

After Dickens died in 1870, the Ghost Club seems to have dissolved, but it was revived in 1882 in conjunction with a new group, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). The SPR took a more skeptical, scientific approach to verifying or debunking supernatural phenomena, and was more inclusive than the Ghost Club, even permitting women to join. This new direction spooked the members of the Ghost Club, and the avowed Spiritualists remained a more secretive, select brotherhood (they actually called each other “Brother Ghost”), only admitting eighty-two members over the course of fifty-five years.

The Ghost Club survived into the next century, undergoing many organizational changes, which included finally admitting Sister Ghosts. They investigated some of the world’s most notorious sites known for paranormal activity, including Borley Rectory (known as “Britain’s most haunted house”) and Glamis Castle (the dramatically creepy inspiration for the setting of Shakespeare’s Macbeth). The Ghost Club still exists today and investigates hauntings as well as UFOs, cryptology, dowsing, and other supernatural phenomena.

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

In its early days, the Ghost Club recruited new members by invitation only, but that policy was abolished in 1993. Anyone over the age of 18 with an interest in the paranormal may join today’s Ghost Club, and their monthly meetings in London are even open to guests. Once a member, you’re in for life . . . and thereafter. Deceased members remain on the Ghost Club roster, and perhaps they even show up at meetings sometimes. Whatever your ontological standing, if you’re able to get to a computer, check out their official website at www.ghostclub.org.uk.

INSIDE THE GHOST CLUB

So what’s it like to be a ghost hunter? The club hosts overnight investigations into paranormal activity at various locales. Maybe you’ve fooled around with a Ouija board, but that’s kid stuff to the members of the Ghost Club, who aim to conduct serious research. Many of the volunteers who go on these “vigils” are mediums, and they use sophisticated equipment like a thermal imager and a “Ghost Box” to record electronic voice phenomena (EVP).

The events of one recent investigation give us an idea of the ghost-hunting process. The club was summoned to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in Scotland, where there were a number of strange occurrences. Reports included shadows moving around the building, and people sensing someone standing beside or behind them when nobody was clearly visible. Was the place really haunted? It was up to the Ghost Club to find out.

Upon entering each room of the concert hall, the Ghost Clubbers recorded the temperature and listened for strange noises. They were highly attuned to the variations in energy as they moved through the building. In the dark café, one member spotted an orb of light and sensed a “religious connection.” It was later confirmed that a church had once stood on that very spot. Another member noted feeling nervous and weak in the knees, and then picked up on the name “Martin.” He pictured him to be a white haired man, an important person who had a link to the building—and sure enough, they later found out the architect, now deceased, was named Sir J. L. Martin. But the evidence doesn’t always add up so neatly. In the bar, the group sensed a humming sound, which was revealed to be only the ice machine.

Ghost hunting has its thrills, but it can also be tedious and unpleasant. Long stretches of time may pass with no paranormal activity to report. Investigators may experience nasty smells, feelings of nausea, and, in the case of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, “negative feelings” around the toilet area.

This particular investigation also yielded reports of growls and grunting, strange white mists, human-shaped shadows, a conversation with a spirit conducted with dowsing rods, and one spirit who was the life of the party when he offered everyone a drink. Over the course of this overnight vigil, the Ghost Club collected enough evidence, in their view, to confirm that the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall is indeed haunted. So if you ever have a chance to take in a concert there, remember what’s lurking behind the scenes!

THE GHOST CLUB

HISTORY AND BACKGROUND

MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS

INSIDE THE GHOST CLUB

THE CURIOUS CASE OF THE COTTINGLEY FAIRIES