how to be a ghostbuster

As the nation puzzled over the haunting of Coronation Street by the ghost of Ivy Brennan, a diverse group of paranormal devotees were getting down to business on a rainy Friday night in deepest Essex. "Playing around with ouija boards is not recommended at all," the speaker warned. "It's like making random telephone calls and asking the person to come visit. You don't know who you might get, it could be Jack the Ripper."

A murmur of heartfelt agreement went around the attendees at the Hauntings and Related Phenomena course, held at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted Hall. Findlay, a local magistrate, farmer and author, gave his rambling mansion, known locally as "Spooks Hall", to the Spiritualists' National Union (SNU) in 1964 for use as a college for the advancement of psychic science.

Today, the SNU runs a packed and popular programme of residential courses at the college, offering everything from spiritual healing and astrological studies to mediumship and how to read auras. Students of the psychic turn up from across Europe with special weeks laid on during the year for the French, Germans, Italians and even Icelanders.

This was the first time, though, that the SNU had put on a course specifically about hauntings. It began with organiser Leonard Young, a spiritualist minister from Manchester, with all the cuddly charm of Casper made mortal, chivying those attending into sharing their thoughts on ghosts and poltergeists.

The rest of the weekend's lectures were given by Professor Archie Roy of Glasgow University and Maurice Grosse, an inventor and renowned ghost- hunter. Both are stalwarts of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), the respected forum for the investigation of the odd, founded in 1882.

Roy proceeded to rattle off details of several cases he had been involved in, attempting to sift out the hallmarks of poltergeist cases versus common hauntings. As such, we concentrated on haunted people, where the ghostly phenomena attach themselves to individuals, following them wherever they go, rather than haunted places, which tend to be less troublesome affairs.

Poltergeist manifestations, which firmly fall into the haunted people category invariably revolve around troubled teenagers living under some stress in a dysfunctional family. Tell-tale signs to watch out for include: strange noises, building up to deep banging sounds; furniture and objects moving on their own; levitation of the teenager at the centre of the case and a sudden drop in temperature preceding any of the aforementioned.

It was at 84 Wood Lane, Enfield, that Grosse cemented his reputation by investigating the most documented case of the century. Janet, an 11- year-old, was the focus of attention over a 14-month period, beginning in August 1977. She made headlines across the world, and yet Grosse, who followed the case from beginning to end, was still none the wiser to the cause.

Not to leave us putative ghostbusters floundering in the dark, Roy wound up his lectures with a few dos and don'ts

l Do take a companion when first meeting haunted people. To go alone could be dangerous and another person can give a useful second opinion.

l Don't initially take any technical paraphernalia as it might put the haunted people off.

l Do try and gain the haunted people's confidence. This will help you to get vital information that could provide an insight into why they have been visited by such ill spirits

l Don't count on the poltergeist making a scheduled appearance. Be prepared for a long haul.

l Above all, Roy insisted, we must leave behind our preconceptions. To this end, he proposed the idea that the SNU and the SPR co-operate to form SCION - the Spontaneous Cases Investigative Network - a database of ghostly phenomena and those willing to investigate them.

Over to you Vera.

The Arthur Findlay College, Stansted Hall, Essex (01279 813636). The Society for Psychical Research, 49 Marloes Rd, London (0171-937 8984)