200 Years Before Christianity: Rome’s Persecution of the Cult of Bacchus

​2,211 years ago. Rome, 186 BC. 7,000 men and women of all classes (including slaves) faced the death penalty for their participation in the secret nocturnal cult festival known as the Bacchanalia, where drunken orgies, sexual perversions, poisoning, forgery, human sacrifice and political conspiracies were all alleged to take place.

​“At night both men and woman, their minds having been set aflame with wine, of greater tender youths, had destroyed all distinction of shame, all kinds of corruption began to happen, since at the time they were prone to obtaining their natural pleasure. There was not only one kind of crime; but here was a great deal of arbitrary rape of females, also false witnesses, forged signing of wills and evidence, all were issued from the same place: from the same place also came poisoning and internal assassinations, so that not even bodies existed for burial…The violence was covered because of the howling and crash of drums and cymbals so no citizens cries were to be heard during their violent rape and slaughter.” - Livy

Sacrifice to Bacchus (1634) by Massimo Stanzione

​Massimo Stanzione, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The cult sprang from increased Greek cultural influence (especially Dionysus, their version of the wine god Bacchus, or vice versa) with the Roman conquest of the Hellenic cities of southern Italy (’Magna Graecia’), the appointment of Greek slaves as educators to the children of elites, and the huge of influx of wealth after the defeat of Carthage in 201 BC. The rigid Senatorial class was disturbed by the dangerously egalitarian aspects of the Bacchic cult, seeing the phenomenon as something that could break their grip on the Republic.

​To crack down on this potentially society-upending movement, the Roman Senate issued the legal decree the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus:

​See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

​Amazingly, a brass rubbing of the decree still exists; translated to English it says:

​"The Consuls Quintus Marcius, the son of Lucius, and Spurius Postumius, the son of Lucius, consulted the senate on the Nones of October (7th), at the temple of the Bellona. Marcus Claudius, son of Marcus, Lucius Valerius, son of Publius, and Quintus Minucius, son of Gaius, were the committee for drawing up the report. Regarding the Bacchanalia, it was resolved to give the following directions to those who are in alliance with us: No one of them is to possess a place where the festivals of Bacchus are celebrated; if there are any who claim that it is necessary for them to have such a place, they are to come to Rome to the praetor urbanus, and the senate is to decide on those matters, when their claims have been heard, provided that not less than 100 senators are present when the affair is discussed.

No man is to be a Bacchantian, neither a Roman citizen, nor one of the Latin name, nor any of our allies unless they come to the praetor urbanus, and he in accordance with the opinion of the senate expressed when not less than 100 senators are present at the discussion, shall have given leave. Carried.

No man is to be a priest; no one, either man or woman, is to be an officer (to manage the temporal affairs of the organization); nor is anyone of them to have charge of a common treasury; no one shall appoint either man or woman to be master or to act as master; henceforth they shall not form conspiracies among themselves, stir up any disorder, make mutual promises or agreements, or interchange pledges; no one shall observe the sacred rites either in public or private or outside the city, unless he comes to the praetor urbanus, and he, in accordance with the opinion of the senate, expressed when no less than 100 senators are present at the discussion, shall have given leave. Carried.

No one in a company of more than five persons altogether, men and women, shall observe the sacred rites, nor in that company shall there be present more than two men or three women, unless in accordance with the opinion of the praetor urbanus and the senate as written above. See that you declare it in the assembly (contio) for not less than three market days; that you may know the opinion of the senate this was their judgment: if there are any who have acted contrary to what was written above, they have decided that a proceeding for a capital offense should be instituted against them; the senate has justly decreed that you should inscribe this on a brazen tablet, and that you should order it to be placed where it can be easiest read; see to it that the revelries of Bacchus, if there be any, except in case there be concerned in the matter something sacred, as was written above, be disbanded within ten days after this letter shall be delivered to you. In the Teuranian field."

​When members of the elite began to participate in the Mysteries, information was presented to the Senate by the impoverished noble Publius Aebutius and his lover, the courtesan Hispala Faecenia,

The author Livy, writing over 150 years later, claims that Hispala said the following words in her testimony:

​”Paculla Minia, a Campanian, when priestess, made an alteration in every particular, as if by the direction of the Gods. For she first introduced men; changed the time of celebration, from day to night; and, instead of three days in a year, appointed 5 days of initiation in each month. From the time that the rites thus made common, and men were intermixed with women, and the licentious freedom of the night was added, there was nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practiced among them. There was more frequent pollution of men with each other than with women. If any were less patient in submitting to this dishonour, or more averse to the commission of vice, they were sacrificed as victims. To think nothing unlawful was the grand maxim of their religion. The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of their bodies; The women, in the habit of Bacchantes, with their hair dishevelled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to the Tiber, where, dipping their torches in the water, they drew them up again with the flame unextinguished, being composed of native sulphur and charcoal. Their number was exceedingly great now, almost a second state in themselves, and among them were many men and women of noble families.”

​The Bacchanalia cult in Rome was based in the grove of Stimula on the western slope of the Aventine Hill, close to The Tiber. The Aventine was ethnically mixed and particularly identified with Rome's lower plebeian class, together with strange new foreign cults. Livy claimed the faction held particular appeal to those of uneducated and fickle mind (levitas animi) - the young, plebeians, women and homosexuals but also some belonging to Rome's highest class.

The sect was held to be a threat to the security of the state, so investigators were appointed, rewards offered to snitches and the official suppression of the cult swept throughout Italy. According to Livy, many committed suicide to avoid punishment; the penalty for those who led the cult was death. He also stated that there were far more executions than imprisonments.

​Methods of Execution

Public execution for men: Convicted male ringleaders found guilty of capital crimes (such as forced initiation, violence, or conspiracy) were put to death in public spaces in Rome and across Italy. Probably by beheading.

Private domestic punishment for women: Rather than public execution, convicted female cult members were handed over to their male household heads (patria potestas) or close relatives to receive private punishment behind closed doors.

Forced suicide: Anticipating arrest, trial, and formal sentencing under the Senatus consultum de Bacchanalibus, many chose to take their own lives rather than face the ordeal of formal state prosecution.

Despite this, the Bacchanalia lingered in the still Greek-influenced south of Italy and was revived in a less threatening form in the later years.

Mark Antony famously identified with the wine god, and was known as the "New Dionysus" to legitimise his rule and charm the Greek and Eastern provinces he controlled. He went as far as to dress in Dionysian garb, complete with ivy crowns and thyrsus staffs. When he toured Greece and Asia Minor, cities ecastically welcomed him with processions of ‘satyrs’ and bacchantes, hailing him as "Dionysus the Benefactor" and "Bringer of Joy".

The wily Octavian harked back to 186 BC in framing Antony's adoption of divine kingship as a total betrayal of Roman values, setting the stage for the final civil war and Antony's defeat at Actium (30 BC).

Memories of the cult’s supposed excesses were reflected in criticism of the new Christian faith. Minuncius Felix Octavius, writing in 197 AD, claimed they were falsely accused of recognising:

“One another by secret signs and marks; they fall in love almost before they are acquainted; everywhere they introduce a kind of religion of lust, a promiscuous ‘brotherhood’ and ‘sisterhood’ by which ordinary fornication, under cover of a hallowed name, is converted to incest. An infant, cased in dough to deceive the unsuspecting, is placed beside the person to be initiated. The novice is thereupon induced to inflict what seem to be harmless blows upon the dough, and unintentionally the infant is killed by his unsuspecting blows; the blood – oh, horrible – they lap up greedily; the limbs they tear to pieces eagerly.”

The Bacchantes (1961)

The opening ritual from The Bacchae, directed by Brad Mays, 2000

​Bradmays, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

​"All the World's a Stage" - Enter Dionysus (1984): Terence Stamp stars as Dionysus in a recorded extract of Euripides' ancient Greek tragedy The Bacchae

Note: the Romans also persecuted the Celtic Druids for a variety of reasons, some political, some ethical, although the condemnation of ritual human sacrifice is a tad hypocritical coming from those who lapped up Gladiatorial combat.

SOURCES INCLUDE

​The Cult of Bacchus and Pliny’s Christian Conundrum: https://anerdyethos.wordpress.com/2013/04/01/the-cult-of-bacchus-and-the-christian-conundrum/

​Bacchanalia – the first persecutions?: https://imperiumromanum.pl/en/curiosities/bacchanalia-the-first-persecutions/

​The Cult of Bacchus: http://avirtualmuseum.org/exhibits/roman_wineii/bacchic/bacchus_intro.html

​The thrill and the ecstasy: the mysteries of the Dionysian cult in ancient Rome:https://www.planetpompeii.com/en/blog/the-thrill-and-the-ecstasy-the-mysteries-of-the-dionysian-cult-in-ancient-rome.html

​How the Cult of God Bacchus was Banned in Ancient Rome:https://greekreporter.com/2023/08/18/god-bacchus-ancient-rome/

​THE BACCHANALIAN AFFAIR: https://lawexplores.com/the-bacchanalian-affair/

​The Suppression of the Bacchanalia: https://necropolisnow.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-suppression-of-bacchanalia.html

​The Bacchanalia: A Greek Dionysian Mystery Cult in Ancient Rome: https://brewminate.com/the-bacchanalia-a-greek-dionysian-mystery-cult-in-ancient-rome/

​The Octavius of Minucius Felix: https://www.tertullian.org/fathers2/ANF-04/anf04-34.htm#P5579_831897

​Under the Spell of the Druids: https://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/under-spell-druids

​Why Did the Romans Destroy the Druids?: https://medium.com/@ancient.rome/why-did-the-romans-destroy-the-druids-1861c20e3942

STEPHEN ARNELL’S NOVEL THE GREAT ONE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE:

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The Forsaken Necropolis of Halifax

Halifax is no stranger to tragedy, a tragedy steeped in blood and suffering. In 1758 a bill was passed to create an asylum strictly for the poor, a convention that had origins in Victorian England. The first poor house, also known as the Poor Asylum, was built on Spring Garden Road across from the courthouse and completed near Christmas in 1759. The property is now known as Grafton Park. There were several smallpox outbreaks in the poor houses, the worst of them occuring in 1827 due to immigration and overpopulation in Halifax.

A new poor house was constructed on the corner of Robie and South streets in 1867, where IWK Health now sits. Builder Henry Peters hired an architect David Sterling whose building plans were in the form of a “Latin cross, with four wings descending from a central building, which measured 180 feet long, 50 feet wide, and four stories high.” The completed main brick building stood five stories high, with a French style roof and soon housed the elderly, orphans, mental patients, sailors, medical patients and inebriates.

The Old Burying Ground was adjacent to the poor house on Spring Garden Road. It was believed to house the remains of 800 people. People who lived in the poor house were not allowed at St. Paul’s Cemetery. Today, Grafton Street Park and the Halifax Memorial Library have erased the history and sight of the poor house and burying grounds.

Halifax poor house corruption, bleak conditions & fire tragedy

​The poor house was very underfunded and led by corrupt managers. The conditions in the poor house were terrible and patients suffered whipping and stocks. One patient was found chained and wearing a dog collar that pierced his throat and neck if he moved. The people who lived in the poor house were expected to work hard and contribute. They helped to stoke the furnace, and worked in the kitchen, the hospital, the garden or cared for the livestock.

The building was destroyed by a fire on November 6, 1882 in the wee hours of the night. The fire was believed to have begun in the laundry room in the northeast section. Some claim it started in the kitchen. It claimed the lives of the most defenseless people - the elderly, the infirm and mentally ill who were asleep in their beds when the fire began. They were so unwell they may not have been able to comprehend what was happening. The patients had nowhere else to go.

Ruins of poorh ouse, Halifax, Nova Scotia

​See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Halifax Fire Department arrived quickly, but the fire raged out of control. The building’s layout confused the firemen and panic spread amongst the patients. 31 people died in the fire. Most of them were residents of the poor house that were not able to be rescued in time. The tragedy gained significant public attention about the inhumane conditions of the asylum.

The firemen helped many inmates escape the fire. They rushed up to the upper sections of the building and carried the inmates who were sleeping or were unaware of the fire at the time. Two clergymen were rescued. One man was exhausted from smoke inhalation and the other had almost suffocated. A woman stood at the window on the fifth floor, her arms resting on the ledge with her hands clasped. Sadly, she fell backwards into the devouring flames. Her screams rang out mingled with the screams of the other patients who were not able to be rescued. Nothing could be done for them.

Prior to the tragic fire, a total of three hundred twenty inmates lived in the poor house. 42 of those patients were in the hospital. The inmates that were fortunate enough to have escaped sought shelter in outhouses and stables. The main building was engulfed in flames. Most of the building could not be saved. The hoses used to extinguish the fires were destroyed. During that time, a man was spotted on the uppermost story of the western wing. Smoke billowed out the window the man was looking through. Behind him, the flames raged. The brave firemen were determined to rescue him. The firemen raised ladders. The man eagerly climbed down the ladders and reached the ground. He was Mister James White, of the number one division, (Salamander) U.E.C. The rescue was just in the nick of time. After his escape, the window was in flames. The adjoining buildings were saved.

​Another building was constructed in the same place by 1886. The asylum was renamed City Home in 1907 and remained as a hospital for mentally unwell patients until its eventual closure. In 1972, City Home was torn down and Abbey Lane was built.

Halifax Poor House fire inquiry

There has not been such a fire in Halifax since that tragic time. The amount of casualties is the highest ever recorded in Halifax’s history. After the tragic fire, an inquiry was held to investigate the conditions of the poor house. The conditions revealed overcrowding, insufficient fire safety, and outdated wood construction. The conditions for the patients were indeed inhumane. A hundred people died annually at the poor house.

Fire breeds change. Changes were in store for the patients who endured harsh conditions in poor houses in Halifax. The fire marked a turning point in the conditions the patients suffered. Reforms were set in how the province cared for the mentally unwell. New institutions were built that were meant to improve safety and guarantee more humane living conditions. The fire is remembered not just for the tragic loss of life, but also that broad social changes were made for public health, welfare and reform in Nova Scotia.

In 1913 construction workers unearthed human remains and bones. There was very little speculation about how that happened. 20,000 bodies are buried in what is now a parking lot for St. Mary’s Basilica and the surrounding areas. One of those areas was the corner of Grafton Street and Spring Garden Road, near the courthouse. The Old Burying Ground was connected to St. Peter’s, the first Roman Catholic Church in Halifax. It no longer stands and has since been replaced by St. Mary’s Basilica.

Halifax Poor House gives the old court house a grim reputation

Old Halifax Courthouse

​SimonP at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The old Halifax Courthouse is a prominent Classical Revival building constructed between 1859-1863, designed by William Thomas and Sons. The building features a classical stone facade made with durable sandstone from Wallace, Cumberland County. Its style features an imposing facade, classical pediment and Tuscan columns.

​Set back far from the sidewalk and grass, the building was expanded on over time. Between the years 1881-1882, a rear addition was built for county courts. In 1908 a west wing was added and in 1930 an east wing was added. In 1969 it was designated as a national historic site and served until 1971 as a provincial courthouse until a new waterfront law courthouse was opened downtown. From then on, it briefly served as a provincial law courthouse, and was restored in 1985.

The dark history of the poor house gives the old Halifax courthouse a grim, unsettling reputation. A grassy park now disguises the poor house that interred those who were mentally unwell and impoverished.

A long forgotten necropolis

The Old Burying Ground, the church, the church parking lot and the other nearby buildings are a long forgotten necropolis. The parking lot of St. Mary’s Basilica contains 3,000 bodies. The Old Burying Ground (also known as St. Paul's Church Cemetery) was established in 1749 opposite the courthouse and closed in 1844. The remains of 12,000 people were buried there. The Old Burying Ground contained the most preserved mortuary art, an odd fact considering there were very few headstones for the many graves. It was designated a national historic site in 1991.

In 1958 a petition was made to pave over the cemetery to make it a park for local businesses. The public outcry defeated the petition. The other cemeteries in Halifax were not so fortunate. A cemetery existed near the Old Burying Ground for the Jewish community since the 1750s, but no longer exists.

Old Burying Ground

​Paulo O from Halifax, Canada, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Across the street from the Old Burying Ground, the church and the courthouse, stands the old Halifax Memorial Library. A committee met in 1945 to decide on building a war memorial in Halifax. It was agreed that the war memorial would be in the form of a library. Over the years, the library amassed a number of items such as flags, memorials, plaques, a Silver Cross replica, a Book of Remembrance, and murals. There are two Books of Remembrance: the first one contains the names of people who died in WWI, and the second contains the names of people who died in WWII and the Korean War, donated in 1955 from Silver Cross Canada.

A cornerstone stands near the library and bears the inscription, “This building was erected in memory of those who gave their lives in defence of their country 1914-1918 1939-1945. For their faith – for their courage – for their sacrifice, we will remember them.” Grafton Street park rests in front of the main entrance of the library and features a statue of Winston Churchill which was unveiled in 1980. Where today people enjoy tea or a snack on colorful benches and savor the fresh air, was once a burial ground for the inmates of the poor house. Park visitors heading either uptown or downtown, may be unaware they are walking over unmarked graves. This small cemetery was in operation for a hundred years from 1761. 4,500 people were interred there. When the Halifax Memorial library was being built, countless human remains were discovered. The inmates were as unfortunate in death as they were in life.

The Presbyterian Church of St. David stands near the library and overlooks Pizza Corner. Between the years of 1793 and 1844, the church was the burying place for Halifax’s Methodists. The interred bodies were forced to make way for more construction. A wooden church was erected where the bodies were buried. The church burned down and was replaced with a brick and stone building that still stands today.

In 2016 and 2017 more construction forced the 244 dead who were buried there to be buried again in a new spot. The Old Burying Ground is the only cemetery that has national historic site status. The other nearby cemeteries have been destroyed and paved over.

Halifax Memorial Library Hauntings

Halifax Memorial Library

​Nova Scotia Information Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Halifax Memorial library closed in 2014 and was recently designated a historic site. That is good news for the ghosts who reside in the library, and the bodies buried underneath and near the library in the park. One afternoon, I was using a computer in the library and felt a hand on my shoulder. When I turned to see who it was, no one was there. I hurried to another section of the library.

Today, Halifax Central library stands on another chapter of Halifax’s history, the Bellevue House, built in 1801 for the Duke of Kent when he was the Commander of the Army in Nova Scotia. It was a popular spot for the military and was the social hub for 100 years. Parties were a weekly occurrence with hundreds of guests attending, up to as much as 600 people. One of those socialites was Adele Hugo, daughter of Victor Hugo. Another was Charles Austen, the brother of Jane Austen. Bellevue House was torn down and became a parking lot. That changed again in 2011 when an archaelogical excavation began in preparation for the construction of Halifax Central Library. The excavation unearthed dozens of artifacts from 1800 to 1850.

1850 was a booming time for Halifax. Some of the objects that were found included wine glasses, a pearlware platter, children’s mugs, even cobble remains of the horse stables along Spring Garden Road, a large water cistern and a rock drain system. A privy was also found which contained other objects dating back to 1850 such as a pearlware chamber pot. Those items lay buried until the excavation occured.

The Halifax necropolis of the poor house dead are long forgotten, their unmarked graves paved over for a park or condominium. It is a sad reality in the modern world, but not as sad as the fates of those who suffered and perished.

REFERENCES:

Nova Scotia Archives: https://archives.novascotia.ca/halifax/archives/?ID=45

Neglect, corruption, and the history behind Halifax’s deadliest fire: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/deadly-halifax-fire-poor-house-30-killed-1.3918547

Halifax (N.S.). City Home records

archive.halifax.ca

Poor House

www.smu.ca

Thousands of people are buried under downtown Halifax: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/jonathan-fowler-halifax-burial-ground-cemetery-archeology-1.5471209

1882 The Poor Asylum Fire: https://www.hfxfirehistory.ca/fires/the-poor-asylum-fire

Halifax’s Poor Houses of the Past - FAIRVIEW HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Fairview Historical Society Articles Archives Home – Articles – Videos – eBooks & PDFs – Local Authors – Sponsors – Contact Halifax’s Poor Houses of...

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Parks Canada - Halifax Court House National Historic Site of Canada

www.pc.gc.ca

Halloween’s 1992 GHOSTWATCH - When BBC Triggered a National Supernatural Meltdown

Halloween 1992: BBC1 scares the living crap out of those viewers who fail to understand that the PTSD-inducing Screen One billed drama presentation GHOSTWATCH was not an actual investigation of paranormal activity. It was cleverly staged entertainment, despite some pretty obvious acting by a cast of real-life presenters (including talk show legend Michael Parkinson) and jobbing thespians.

“​One of the biggest criticisms was that familiar presenters, especially Sarah Greene from children’s TV, made parents think the show was safe for kids. It wasn’t. Near the end, Greene’s character gets trapped in a dark cupboard while a ghost howls nearby, and Parkinson appears to be possessed on live television.” Fiction Horizon

Courtesy of The Radio Times

One million calls from Ghostwatch viewers

Scripted by Stephen Volk (The Awakening) and directed by Lesley Manning (who also provided the voice of the ghoul), the show was part of the BBC anthology drama series Screen One. Recorded weeks in advance, the programme was presented as live. On the night of GHOSTWATCH’s only UK transmission, estimates of ‘terrified’ complaint phone calls to the BCC range from 20,000 - 50,000. The number of calls was so heavy that the BBC recorded message saying the show was a drama, was blocked by the sheer volume.

​According to Ghostwatch Behind the Curtains:

During an interview withSamhain Magazine in 1996, utilising a breakdown from British Telecom, producer, Ruth Baumgarten also estimated 100,000 calls during the peak five minutes of telephone activity, and as many as 1,000,000 calls from viewers in total, throughout the evening.

Briefly, the story (inspired by the ‘real-life’ Enfield Poltergeist Haunting of 1977-79)

A suburban London house in the fictional ‘Foxhill Drive’. Pam Early and her daughters Kim and Suzanne are hounded by a spectre that Kim named ‘Mr Pipes’. Pam thought the disturbances were simply rumbling heating pipes but the sinister basement-dwelling Pipes eventually possesses and tortures young Suzanne.

Chat show giant Michael Parkinson presides over the show with Dr Lin Pascoe, as kids TV presenter Sarah Greene and TV crew spend Halloween night with the Early family. Outside, comedian/DJ/actor Craig Charles investigates the street's history and talks to the locals.

As the show progresses, increasingly strange phenomena occur in the house. Suzanne is first exposed for making up some of the past events, but speaks in an unearthly voice as scratches appear on her face. The house is revealed to possess a sinister history, previously home to Victorian child-killing ‘baby-farmer’ ‘Mother’ Seddons, who at first was thought to be an occupant at Foxhill Drive, now suspected of being an ancient evil entity who has dwelt in the spot for millennia, undergoing numerous evil incarnations.

Events become increasingly unhinged, as Suzanne disappears and Pipes takes supernatural hold of the broadcast. Greene attempts to rescue Suzanne from the basement, but is dragged through the door to a demonic realm. Back in the studio, Pipes’ hold increases, causing Parkie to attempt flight, but he is possessed by the entity, and addresses the watching masses, saying "Fee-fo-fum", the implication being that Mr Pipes is now present in every TV tuned to GHOSTWATCH.

The Fall Out

11 million people tuned in to see GHOSTWATCH, a very decent audience for the time.

The full BBC1 BARB rankings in millions of viewers for the week of 26th October - 1st November 1992:

1. EastEnders(Tue/Sun) (21.34)
2. Neighbours(Mon) (17.97)
3. Casualty (14.74)
4. Noel's House Party (13.39)
5. Birds of a Feather (12.41)
6. Last of the Summer Wine (11.32)
7. Waiting for God (11.20)
8. GHOSTWATCH (11.07)
9. Big Break (10.95)
10. A Question of Sport (10.92)

BBC TV Guide, Halloween 1992

The Broadcasting Standards Commission concluded that the BBC had made a mistake by not making it clearer that GHOSTWATCH was entirely fictional, but to me personally it was abundantly clear that the show was a Halloween leg-pull, admittedly one conducted with pitch-black humour and seriousness (aside from the jokey contributions of Craig Charles that is).

GHOSTWATCH was the first television programme claimed to have caused post traumatic stress disorder in children. In the March 12, 1994 issue of the British Medical Journal reported that two 10-year old boys were left traumatized by the show.

Father holds BBC completely responsible for his son’s death

GHOSTWATCH was also linked to suicide five days after transmission, of Martin Denham, an 18-year-old man with learning difficulties. Denham's home, where he lived with his mum and stepfather, had defective central heating, with the noise from the pipes made him believe the show’s poltergeist had now taken up residence there.

His mother and stepfather April and Percy Denham claimed Martin had become obsessed with GHOSTWATCH, directly leading to his death. Britain's High Court compelled a reluctant BSC (Broadcasting Standards Commission) to listen to the Denham's complaint and thirty-four others affected by the show.

April Denham: ‘I blame the BBC - it is all their fault. They said it was based on a true story but it was all a hoax.’

Percy Denham: 'He was a very nervous lad. He was really into it - he was just gone. I had to keep asking him if he was all right. He thought there were ghosts in our home. In my own mind I hold the BBC completely responsible for his death. But I won't be suing them - I can't afford it.'

Martin, who had a mental age of 13, hanged himself in a local park with a length of plastic hosepipe. Heartbreakingly, his farewell note read, “Please don't worry - if there are ghosts I will be a ghost, and I will be with you always as a ghost.”

Parents blame TV programme for son's death

THE PARENTS of a teenager who hanged himself a few days after watching the television documentary Ghostwatch blame the BBC for their son's death.

www.independent.co.uk

Was there ever a sequel to GHOSTWATCH?

Yes, indeed there was - Stephen Volk later wrote a short story called 31/10 aka GHOSTWATCH 2: Return to Studio One, using the same (surviving) characters and set 10 years after the original programme.

The ‘National Séance’

On the show’s 18th anniversary, in 2010, a live event took place where fans were asked to simultaneously play their personal recordings at 9:25pm (when GHOSTWATCH was originally broadcast) and then tweet about the experience as it played; it has since become a yearly tradition.

The Enfield Poltergeist documentary concerned alleged ghostly activity at 284 Green Street, an Enfield council house in outer London. Between 1977 and 1979, the supposed presence preyed on sisters Janet (11) and Margaret Hodgson (13).

284 Green Street, Enfield, London, location of the Enfield poltergeist

​Mx. Granger, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

From the time:

And an earlier mockumentary - Anglia’s ALTERNATIVE 3 (June 1977)

An investigation into the UK's brain drain reveals a plot to make the Moon and Mars habitable for selected human beings in the event of nuclear war, climate change, and environmental collapse on Earth. Presenter/Tory MP Tim Brinton was the only non-actor in the put-on. All other characters were played by actors. Richard (‘Allo, ‘Allo!) Marner who played Dr. Carl Gerstein, said he deliberately did not learn his lines, making his delivery as natural as possible. Alternative 3 was made with film stock, making it appear as a ‘normal’ documentary of the era.

The Stone Tape

If the particular spooky vibe of GHOSTWATCH appeals to you, check out Nigel Kneale’s terrifying THE STONE TAPE (1972). A scientific team move into their new research facility, a renovated Victorian mansion rumoured to be haunted. Their investigations try to determine if the building’s stones have recorded past happenings there (the ‘stone tape’), but instead unleash a terrible malign force.

The League of Gentlemen/Inside No 9’s Jeremy Dyson said The Stone Tape, "strikes a note that it just circumnavigates your intellect and gets you on a much deeper level; it just has this impact on you, rather like being in the room itself. Extraordinary piece of work."

Before GHOSTWATCH was even a gleam in writer Stephen Volk’s eye, there was Orson Welles’ original War of the Worlds 1938 Radio Broadcast:

The 1957 live presentation on Studio One dramatized the War of the Worlds broadcast and its aftermath.

Welles talks to War of the Worlds author H.G. Wells:

The BBC appear to have rediscovered their taste for paranormal TV, as no less than four shows in the genre have appeared in 2025:

BBC Three - Paranormal

BBC Two - Hauntings

BBC Two - Uncanny

BBC Three - Charlie Cooper’s Myth Country

Prior to this, paranormal TV was mainly the preserve of the Most Haunted series of shows, which played on cable channels: Living, from 2002-10 and Really, across 2014-19. Incidentally, co-creator and host Yvette Fielding (1987-1992) was, like Sarah Greene (1980-83), a former presenter of BBC children’s show Blue Peter. The Most Haunted brand now resides on YouTube.

Stephen Arnell’s novel THE GREAT ONE, is available on Amazon Kindle:

The Great One : The Secret Memoirs of Pompey the Great eBook : Arnell, Stephen: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

The Great One : The Secret Memoirs of Pompey the Great eBook : Arnell, Stephen: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

www.amazon.co.uk

An excerpt:

Henry Fuseli‘s The Nightmare (1781)

​Tulip Hysteria / Go to albums, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

References

Fiction Horizon - https://fictionhorizon.com/33-years-ago-a-bbc-horror-documentary-caused-mass-ptsd-and-was-banned-as-a-result/

Televisual - https://www.televisual.com/news/cmgs-ghostwatch-documentary-picked-up-by-5/

Ghostwatch Behind the Curtains: https://www.ghostwatchbtc.com/p/faq.html

Mass Occultic Deception Exposed: Why Secret Knowledge Isn’t Secret Anymore

​After five years of fascinating dark occult research, I now regard the corporate world heirarchy as a giant Phonyland amusement park run by extremely arrogant people whose secret knowledge isn’t so secret anymore; perpetrators of an illusory, fraudulent, mass occultic deception. Fortunately, their arrogance is driven by fear, so fear not! We have everything to gain by becoming aware of how dysfunctional and broken the outgoing dark occult heirarchy really is. Let’s seize the opportunity to embrace our powerful divinity and focus on co-creating a flourishing, healthy and prosperous world for our children, families and future generations.

On a personal note, if it wasn’t for the 2020 Corona-turned-COVID (Certification of Vaccine Identification) virus (Virtual Integrated Repeated Unifying System) gatecrash and World Economic Forum Chairman Klaus Schwab’s beloved ‘great reset’, and crude invasion into my peaceful, healthy, private world, I may never have delved into the possibility of adverse, dark occult influences upon the top tiers of society - the media shy ‘unelected ruling club’. Thank you Klaus and Corona (1650s Latin meaning: crown; garland).

Special thanks also goes to genuine, recovering cult survivors, many from prominent generational cult bloodlines for speaking out publicly to warn the world that the shocking ritualistic mind control abuses inflicted upon them as children, are planned for all of humanity. Not on our watch, of course.

The long planned 2020 ‘reset’

​With mind manipulation technologies, propaganda and the WEF’s synthetic, transhumanistic agenda being forced upon us like never before, in my opinion, we homo sapiens have the upper hand and always will. This is because Divine Law and Spiritual Intelligence are on our side. The AI technocracy and transhumanism fanatics do not enjoy this privelege. They are relying on some kind of AI God that needs data centres to survive. This was revealed by US military cult program survivor Arkheim Ra, who has been warning about the dystopian satanic/luciferian agenda for many years in between healing from the extreme childhood damages he somehow survived.

​Most people would also be unaware that the long planned 2020 ‘reset’ was exposed in detail in 2000 by prominent cult survivor and prolific author Svali. Conceived in a Swiss genetics lab in the 1950s by an occultic group, Svali’s 'father' was Nazi SS doctor Joseph Mengele, dubbed the Angel of Death. In between being trafficked and ritually abused in many different countries by disturbed elitist perpetrators, and forced to traffick orphaned babies and young children to wealthy predatory families throughout Europe, Svali became one of the world's top mind control programmers/trainers and an Illuminati infiltrator. She also took the life-threatening risk of escaping from the cult and later sharing her harrowing story which I regard as an gift to all of humanity.

This is an excerpt from her 2023 50 Voices of Ritual Abuse testimony:

'In 2000 in my blog, I said that basically, the occultic societies had taken over the areas of government, finance, our banking system, education, media and were even infiltrating churches and religious organisations and that they were actually running them at that point but they just hadn't come forward. I said that 2020 would be pivotal, when they would start coming forward. And they have. They have become much more open since the pandemic...

A world government leader will be announced by 2030. I've met him... He is not Klaus Schwab or the person that a lot of people are mentioning but the person, I believe, is in preparation right now. If you read the Bible, God wins in the end, Satan loses. So even if this world leader comes on the stage, he will not win. He will be deposed.'

​Secret Knowledge Oddities

My dark occult research travels revealed many curious things from a range of online chatterboxes who discussed topics like satanism, luciferianism, mind control, mockery, sorcery, slavery, black magick, masonic hoodwinking and child rape/murder, staged ‘loosh’ events, transhumanism, grotesque synthetic food, and a luciferian one world government that wants to enslave all of humanity. Strange but true. Some of the seemingly intelligent chatterboxes have turned out to be hoodwinkers but the knowledge they imparted was mostly true. Or was it? Please comment if you can prove any of the following revelations to be false.

Here are just a few of the occult oddities that I discovered:

~ Behind-the-scenes battles between various top tier occultic groups for world control includes a ridiculous expectation that all earthlings will submit to the luciferian ‘one world religion.’

~ Until 2018, I thought lucifer was a myth. Not so. Short definition of the luciferian belief system: On the altar of the devil, up is down, pleasure is pain, darkness is light, slavery is freedom, and madness is sanity. (Author unknown)

~ Freemasons purport to worship God. Their god is lucifer. All freemason oaths are intertwined with black magick, they rape and murder children and summon demons through rituals and mantras.

​​​~ The Vatican folk believe that they ‘own your soul’ because your mother and father ‘registered’ you at birth in order to receive a birth certificate.

~ Australian wine producers who are practising dark occultists, chant black magic spells over the wine at midnight and summon low frequency spirits which energetically attach to the wine. Some of them also add blood to wine because they are blood drinkers and think it’s funny that nobody knows what they are doing to the community. These dark energies adversely affect all who drink the wine. Qantas Airlines allegedly serves demonic wines.

~ The music industry is also known to chant over music which infects millions of home environments with demonic energies - particularly families with young children who idolize the ‘stars’.

~ Cannibalistic, satanic mass produced food corporations use human remains in their ‘food’ and drinks. (Time to introduce luciferian/satanic food, alcohol and product labelling.)

~ Adelaide, South Australia is the globalist child predator cult headquarters of the world.

~ Many politicians are entangled in cult groups and compromised by a drug called Devil’s Breath or Scopolamine.

​ ~ The cults want to make it hell on earth for all people except them - the ones with the most knowledge. They believe they can do this and get away with it

​ ~ Cult perpertrators laugh at the police because they know that they have locked up so many innocent people that they have placed as patsies. They collect blood from people under Scopolamine who don’t realise that blood has been collected. The blood is used in murders where an innocent person’s blood is sprayed at the crime scene.

​​​~ The word ‘legal’ is defined as the ‘undoing of God’s law.’

~ The Rockefeller funded Tavistock Institute’s long planned global government or one world collectivist state will allegedly have one little guy at the top, 13 seats at the table, and, I’m assuming, cascading levels of lower authority. Sounds uncannily similar to the current heirarchy with the Vatican top dogs and lucifer installed at the top.

This image provides an overview of the cult heirarchy. If this is inaccurate, please let me know.

Image creator unknown

​Benefits of secret knowledge awareness

One of my earliest and most insightful ‘walk your talk’ dark occult educators was former satanic priest turned podcaster Mark Passio. He succinctly sums up my feelings about the benefits of understanding the fundamentals of the widely feared and misunderstood occultic realms.

“A small minority is discovering the real dynamics of control and power. It’s all connected to occult hierarchies that do not have the interests of the people at heart. We need occulted and esoteric knowledge to understand how natural law works and how our free will behaviours work with natural law and manifest what we want in our lives.

If humanity collectively does not align to our inherent natural law rights, and goes along with the enslavement system, then we will see more shut downs of human rights – from covert to overt slavery.”

Unaware that I was perceived as a slave by the cult heirarchy, further research led me to the website of Larry Hannigan who enlightened me about the original Australian Law publication of Elements of Roman Law, where Roman slaves were defined as a thing or a person. This particular entry has been removed from PDF copies that are currently in circulation.

Source: larryharrigan.com.au

This revelation tied in with claims about the Vatican’s fraudulent conversion of new born ‘free’ babies into incorporated ‘Vatican property’ through non-consensual, publicly registered Birth Certificates that are traded on the stock market. How does it feel to be viewed as mere ‘chattel’ by a constipated, tax guzzling, Vatican-serving corporation called government? Where masonic ‘men on high’ worship lucifer and behave like masters who grant unwitting tax paying slaves freedoms and privileges that were never theirs to begin with.

​The ‘free-world’ is not free at all, it seems. But we are getting there.

Exiting the dreary matrix

Humanity has everything to gain, or as the Bible states, Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5). After centuries of pillaging, programming, illusions, trickery, tyranny, rape, genocide and too many other horrors, the tide is now turning. Once you become aware of the various ‘control elements’ that have kept us unconsciously trapped in this man-made matrix, and build your secret knowledge library, it’s all systems go!

In more recent decades, the increasingly weaponized and corporatized mass media and entertainment ‘complex’ has played a detrimental role in shaping the world’s seemingly dystopian ‘narrative’. This insidious takeover has been perpetrated by cult driven billionaires, mega-corporations, blackmail rackets, technocrats and oligarchs who lack imagination, morals and heart. It has saddened me to see the industry I once worked in fall into line with absurd globalist agendas. It also shows how weak and subservient the current batch of order taking corporate mass media owners and their complicit board room executives are. Particularly post 2020.

As mentioned earlier, cult whistleblower Svali published her expose about the 2020 ‘overt cult takeover’ in the year 2000. This would never have happened without willing perpetrators in positions of high authority across thee globe together with a fully controlled mass media and internet censorship. And were you aware that key aspects of this nefarious plan was published in a 1989 book entitled The New World Order by A. Ralph Epperson? Beyond a Pale Horse by the late radio broadcaster, author and US Naval Intelligence Briefing Team member Milton William ‘Bill’ Cooper, also comes to mind.

The New World Order - Epperson

Widespread Covert Use of Mind Control Technologies

Whoever controls the media, controls the mind. - Jim Morrison

​Mass media and entertainment (entrainment) control naturally gives hellbound globalists an unfair advantage in their desperate quest to digitally enslave and control everyone on earth except themselves. They clearly had messed up childhoods to grow into such hateful infantile adults. Fortunately, there are billions of us and only thousands of them.

Hand in hand with mass media programming is the long-term use of mass mind control programs such as MK-Ultra and Monarch, particularly in Australia, United States of America and United Kingdom. Sadly, many cult survivors describe Australia as a mass population mind control testing ground for the world and most governments seem to love this idea, especially when it comes to attempting to control annoying critical thinkers. Until I began to listen to cult survivor testimonials, and learned that their perpetrators all used the same insidious ritual abuse and mind control playbook, I had heard of mind control but didn’t take much notice.

​We are seeing is MK Ultra rolled out through the media and education system worldwide which was part and parcel of the goals of the new world order that Cathy O’Brien recounts openly in her book ‘Trance Formation of America’. Jason Christoff, Specialist Programming and De-Programming Educator

Tavistock Institute aka Military Industrial Complex

It is well documented that the CIA’s MK Ultra mind control experiments started in the 50s and ended in the 70s. But if you listen to recovering cult survivors or read their books, mind control is still alive and unwell. A recent US congressional hearing was largely criticised by prominent survivors turned therapists, podcasters and authors as a mere appeasement process that is on a road to nowhere.

Another long term mind control player is the Rockefeller funded Tavistock Institute. Established in 1921 by the Royal Institute for International Affairs (RIIA) modern-day Tavistock has grown into one of the world's largest, most influential, occultic think tanks on earth. Some researchers and authors claim that Tavistock’s ultimate goal is to manipulate or force the world’s population into accepting a one world collectivist state or global government - hardline communist style. No thank you.

Tavistock is also accused specializing in (negative) social engineering, brainwashing and mind control by means of inducing trauma-induced fear to artificially create split states of mind, which can then be programmed to do whatever the programmers are instructed to do. Sadly, most of the people in high positions of authority and influence these days, all suffered from mind control torture and abuse in their childhood. Part and parcel of being groomed for future positions to play their insidious part in carrying out the anti humanity globalist agenda. Most of these people have freemasonry or other dark occult affiliations in the family bloodline. Yet another standalone article.

There are some excellent books about Tavistock should you wish to educate yourself further. My pick is Tavistock Institute: Social Engineering the Masses by Daniel Estulin.

Tavistock Social Engineering

Some researchers and authors have suggested that Tavistock even invented the ‘conspiracy theory’ label as a cover to hide behind while they perpetrated crimes against humanity, together with the added convenience of zero media scrutiny. Others claim it was invented by the CIA. Maybe the CIA collaborated with Tavistock on that one. Whichever way, these are the kinds of people and institutes that would prefer to keep secret knowledge all to themselves. Sorry guys. The secret knowledge cats are out of the trickery back and ain’t coming back.

Tavistock Institute Survivor Testimony Notes

I shall end this article with some notes from an interview with prominent UK-born Australian Tavistock Institute cult survivor Aishe Spark. She was born into a Druidic occult family, same as Churchill, Hitler and Mengele, and her grandmother was a grande dame with connections in high places. Aishe survived horrific experiments, mind control torture, was trafficked underground with many other children from Buckingham Palace to Westminster and trained as a mind control programmer.

Her life long mind control programming started to break down age 66 and she described it as feeling as though she was ‘coming back to life’. Over time, she has learned to live with a fragmented mind, body and soul and is a wonderful, courageous, compassionate woman who also supports other survivors on their respective healing journeys. Many critics accuse survivors of suffering from the ‘false memory syndrome’. That contentious topic will be addressed in a future article about mind control.

Here are some of Aishe Sparke’s concerning, often disturbing allegations:

~ Australia is the headquarters of all Rockefeller funded Tavistock institutes which currently control everything.

~ The occultic Illuminati’s New World Order headquarters is located in Australia’s capital city of Canberra. Their plan includes the complete takeover of Australia and its lucrative natural resources, plus full control of this great southern land’s energetic ley lines, grids and sacred sites where they have built Freemason buildings, obelisks and carried out massacres.

~ The whole of Australia is a big cult, a big experiment, with millions of Australians being covertly programmed. This includes mind controlled politicians and many other prominent authority figures who are told what to say but the hidden cult manipulators.

~ Australia’s police have a new communication system and are all ‘super controlled’ to a new frequency

~ Australia has about seven laboratories doing horrific things, including DNA experiments. Everything is masterminded by Tavistock – almost like the brain machine. (This is partly why this odd but beautiful little land down under feels like a subservient, inverted straitjacket.)

Aishe also had good news to share:

The answers to everything will come from Australia. They have kept it so secret for so long but now the truth is coming out.

Indeed it is. Please do your own research to make up your own mind about secret knowledge and what this world may or may not be. I am just sharing what I have learned because it has ultimately served to make me laugh out loud at not-so-secret cult shenanigans and form a mighty optimistic world view. Insiders like Max Lowen and Laura Worley are now claiming the the elitist cults are now running around like scattered, chaotic, headless chickens.

News interview with Australian cult whistleblower Jo Gillies

At the time of writing, Nugget’s News host Alex Saunders interviewed Australian cult survivor and whistleblower Jo Gillies who expanded on several of the topics raised by Aishe. Recommended viewing, especially for Australian media and political public figures. There is no need to believe everything she says. Just listen and be aware that the parallel cult world is real and needs to be fully exposed and extinguished.

Interview Link: https://youtu.be/ctoNfDQMjcU?si=R8sPGY1OgX5rAjNQ

End of part 1