The Mysterious Ash Tree - Beware or Befriend?

​In my front garden stands a typically fast-growing Ash tree, one whose roots are perilously close to destroying the garage.

Which got me thinking about the Ash tree in folklore and in the paranormal world; my cultural touchstone being M.R. James’ disturbing tale The Ash Tree (1904); links to two BBC2 versions are linked below.

The Ash (or Fraxinus) is generally regarded as a positive member of a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, or Oleaceae. Indeed, in Norse mythology, the World Tree Yggdrasil is held to be a sacred Ash tree and was regarded across Northern Europe as a symbol of cosmic connection, healing, and strength.

The Old Ash Tree

​Symon Parsley / Old Ash Tree

In popular culture, the World Tree recently featured in season 2 of Marvel’s LOKI (2023).

For the Vikings, the first man, Askr, was formed from an Ash, whilst the first woman Embla was made from an elm. In the Norse poem Hávamál, Odin described hanging himself from a "wind-swept (Ash) tree" for nine nights, wounded by a spear, in a self-sacrifice to himself to gain wisdom and learn the secrets of the runes.

​In Celtic and British folklore, the Ash is one of the three sacred trees, along with Oak and Thorn; a healing tree, particularly used in rituals to cure poorly children.

For the ancient Greeks, the Meliae were nymphs associated with the Ash tree, born from the blood of Uranus falling onto Gaia.

​The Askafroa (wife of the Ash tree), or in Danish ‘Askefrue’ is the guardian of the Ash tree, a malicious creature. To appease her, it was necessary to make a sacrifice every Ash Wednesday by pouring water on her roots and declaring: "I am offering to you so that you do us no harm".

​Ash Wednesday, while nowadays of course, a Christian observance marking the start of Lent, has roots in pagan customs of purification, mourning, and the return of spring, including using ash for protection, fertility, and renewal. Ashes were used to mark the forehead for Odin’s protection often done on "Odin's Day" (Wednesday). In Celtic tradition, ashes were used to bless livestock and ensure fertility during the transition from winter to spring, frequently associated with Imbolc celebrations.

There are fictional takes on less than benevolent Ash trees, including in the 1990 3-part BBC television adaptation of Kingsley Amis’s novel, The Green Man (1969), where it puts in a truly terrifying appearance at the beginning of the first episode:

​Note: Green Man sculptures are often created from fallen Ash trees.

The Green Man in Lesnes Abbey Woods, London Borough of Bexley.

​Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The UK - in ‘real’ life?

1869’s Haunted Ash of Lampits (Scotland), part of The Ghosts of Carnwath series of supernatural reportage

An account in Scotland’s Hamilton Advertiser of 28th August 1869 detailed a melancholy apparition and haunted Ash tree near Lampits Farm, to the east of Carstairs Junction in South Lanarkshire:

“There long stood a solitary, melancholy-looking ash tree in a field on the Lampits Farm, in the vicinity of Cockysyetts, which was cut down to make way for the Queen’s branch of the Caledonian Railway, and which was still more melancholy, in my imagination, from its dismal associations; for here, on one of the branches of this dowie-looking tree, a poor heart-broken girl of Cockysyetts closed her earthly sorrows and her earthly pilgrimage. No mavis or blackbird was ever seen to nestle in it scanty foliage, no merry note of music was ever heard from its dull half-blasted branches; the raven might croak and the pyot chatter there by day, and the owl scream by night, but no other merriment, dear tree, was thine. Ghosts love the darkness and the shade, and the ghost of poor Jessie was often seen gliding at midnight among the shadows of the fearsome neuk.”

Today, few trees grow on the flat windswept carseland around Lampits. There remains, however, a solitary ancient ash tree that commands a view across the flat fields towards the Caledonian Railway. Many of its upper branches have been lost to past storms, and disease ravages others, however new growth continues to sprout from a gnarled and weathered old trunk.

With scanty foliage and half-blasted branches it has an uncanny resemblance to the melancholy old ash tree described in the newspaper article over 150 years ago. Ash trees can live for up to three hundred years, therefore it’s possible that the surviving tree could have witnessed Jessie’s melancholy end, early in the 19th century. It might even have sprung from a seed of the haunted ash.

The Hardy Tree (St Pancras Old Church, London)

​David Edgar, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The Hardy tree was an Ash tree located in the very ancient, possibly Roman St Pancras Old Church's churchyard in London. Notable for the stacked gravestones embedded at its base in around 1860, when graves were moved by writer-then-architect Thomas Hardy to make way for the Midland Railway to run through the churchyard.

In 2014, the tree was infected with fungus, and with storms further weakening it, the tree fell in December 2022.

The Hell Tree

From: The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….(2021)

It’s thought that during his time here, Hardy actually uncovered the body of a two-headed man during the excavations. Thomas never documented anything regarding and this and more recent photographs of the tree has encouraged speculation if he ever had anything to do creating the design at all. He did write a poem named Levell’d Churchyard. Thomas’s poem suggests that he didn’t have fond memories of the work he did here but its hardly surprising given the job he was expected to do.

In letters that were written by the St Pancras Old Church vicar John Tweed in 1859 to his wife Charlotte, he appeared to have witnessed a supernatural manifestation. The vicar detailed how his churchyard was home to a mass gathering of apparitions and how tombstones seem to appear at the Ash tree and that he had even seen them moving towards this tree by a unseen force.

In December 1859 he wrote to Charlotte: ”More missing headstones. Increasingly certain of connection with my guests. Today I traced strange lines of disturbed earth across the graveyard. Each lead to the Ash Tree. Are they being dragged there? And then where? The ash tree itself is looking increasingly unhealthy, possibly diseased. I don’t like to get too close to it.”

And then: “If I hadn’t seen such as I have seen these past months I may not have trusted my eyes, but trust them I must. I shall record it in as plain a manner as I know how: By the light of the moon last night I saw a gravestone, moving with some speed, and quite of its own accord, across the graveyard. It hurtled towards the ash tree, at the base of which it disappeared, as if plunging in to the very bowels of the tree.” Finally: “Good God. Hundreds of them, of all shapes, just pouring into the tree.” He later refers to the tree being a gateway and it’s believed by some that he felt it could have possibly been a hell gate.

​“Dearest Charlotte, I do so love hearing your news from the vale, it pains me to have to recount the horrors of my life here… At night I am plagued by nightmares so vivid and dreadful that I am afraid to sleep at all. I have been nailed to the cursed iron frontage of a flame-licked and hell-bound locomotive. I have walked through the dark miasma and fetid slime of a London choked by death. I have seen the flagstones of the church floor thrust violently upwards by a sudden eruption of uncertain origin. And these are only the visions I have the constitution to retell… I begin to suspect that it is not just the lost ones that are being dragged down to that place. For how to account for the sheer number I watch descend every night? Where will it end? Must every dead soul in the parish, every dead soul in London be reclaimed for damnation?! No Charlotte, I shall not see it happen.”

​Allegedly John Tweed closed the hell gate in 1860 by burying a Bible under the tree, and scans of the Ash tree show a large book buried within the roots… but nobody has ever been allowed to dig the area. No reports were made from Tweed after 1860, when he lost the ability to record his findings; his writing hand apparently useless.

​And...this from Exit Strategy for the Restless Dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras (2017)

He wrote to Charlotte: “Every thief, vagabond and ne’er-do-well in London seems to have wound up buried at St P. Which would be all well and good, except that the digging up of late seems to have unearthed more than just bones. Judging by the number of lost souls drifting about the place in one spirit form or another, I would offer that many of my guests are far from welcome in Heaven. I can only assume that having been buried in consecrated ground further precludes them from the other place, which leaves them, it is my horror to say, stuck in the churchyard with me”.

Tweed was not entirely without sympathy for his ghostly companions, going on to tell his wife that they were: “Sad seeming things. I feel quite sorry for them. I don’t suppose I should mind at all if only they kept their mournful meanderings to the night-time hours. Last Sunday I was midway through service when a wraith came down the aisle – an infernal thing, it stalked among the shadows between the shafts of morning light, wailing and moaning like a baleful cat. There were already murmurings amongst the parishioners about the foul stench from the digging up. Dearest Charlotte, I am not sure how much longer I can pacify them.”

The Beatles at Old St Pancras (1968)

Although St Pancras Old Church is in central London, minutes away from the great Victorian Gothic pile of a station, the area can be quite a haunting, lonely place, perched on a hill overlooking the railway junctions of St Pancras and King’s Cross. I remember visiting in the snows and blizzards of Winter 2015, when the church grounds felt like something from one of Grimm’s tales.

The Lively Arts: Thomas Hardy - A Haunted Man (1978)

The Ash Tree - Vampire/Zombie Killer

​In folklore, an ash stake is traditionally used to kill vampires, especially in Slavic, Russian, and Baltic traditions. Ash wood represents protective, "life" energy in Norse mythology, where it can help destroy the Draugr (Undead), or at least weaken their supernatural powers. The Viking version of vampires/zombies are described as bloated “death-blue/black” revenants who ferociously protect their treasure, with the ability to grow to giant sizes and shapeshift.

Note: other words for the Undead or Vampires in Norse legend include:

Aptrgangr (Again-walker): One who walks again.

Haugbúi (Barrow-dweller): One that dwells within its burial mound (howe).

Gjenganger: A ghost or revenant.

​In Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), Abraham Van Helsing utilizes wooden stakes associated with specific woods like ash or white oak to impale vampires by piercing their Undead hearts.

Three BBC adaptations of The Ash Tree by M.R James

The Ash-Tree (1986)

And a later telling from 2000; my idea but ripped off by a then senior BBC colleague:

​A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (1975) - The big reveal...

​Ash Wednesday (1973) full movie

LINKS

​The Haunted Ash of Lampits: https://clydesdalesheritage.org.uk/article/the-haunted-ash-of-lampits/

​Askafroa: https://www.stronghold-nation.com/history/myth/askafroa

​Ash Wednesday and its pagan origins: https://susannesanlier.wordpress.com/2015/02/18/ash-wednesday-and-its-pagan-origins/

​What is Imbolc? The Celtic fire festival that welcomes spring—in February: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/imbolc-celtic-celebration-brigid

​Draugr, Haugbui And Aptrgangr – The Undead of Norse Myths: https://vikingr.org/other-beings/undead-viking-age?srsltid=AfmBOooD9FPhdZ_fGZNJpou74mRFiwpS_qX8UmyR39HCDmJHrj0w4hDj

​Thomas Hardy: Gravestone-encircled tree falls in Camden: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64110086

​The Mysterious Hardy Tree | Graves that Circle a Tree….:https://paranormalhauntings.blog/2021/12/26/the-mysterious-hardy-tree-graves-that-circle-a-tree/

​Exit strategy for a restless dead: The Hell Tree of St Pancras: https://portalsoflondon.com/2017/01/20/the-hell-tree-of-st-pancras/

STEPHEN ARNELL’S HISTORICAL NOVEL THE GREAT ONE IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE:https://www.amazon.co.uk/Great-One-Secret-Memoirs-Pompey-ebook/dp/B0BNLTB2G7

SAMPLE:

THE HAG GODDESS AND HER DAUGHTER

In Celtic cultures, the goddess of winter is the Cailleach, the old hag. The Cailleach is a wrinkled old woman with blue skin, rust colored teeth, and one immense eye in the center of her forehead. Her hair is long and wild and bone white. The goddess of winter appears at Samhain (Halloween) and rules until Beltane (May Day), when she is superseded by her daughter, Bride, the goddess of the spring.

By Internet Archive Book Images - https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14566397697/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/wondertalesfroms00mack/wondertalesfroms00mack#page/n28/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43940524

As Patricia Monaghan writes in The Goddess Companion, quoting a Scottish song about the Cailleach:

“Her face had the blue-black shine of coal.

Her one bony tooth was red like rust.

Her hair was thick and dense and gray

like brushwood in a dying forest.

In her head was one eye like a pool,

swifter than a star in the winter sky.

That one stone eye in the hag’s head

moved quicker than mackerel after a lure.”

The Cailleach is more than a weather witch. She is a Neolithic Scottish creation goddess, a sort of giantess with amazing size and strength. The hag fashioned the Scottish mountains with her hammer. The goddess made the islands by dropping chunks of peat and rock from a basket on her back. Hikers see her hand print or footprint on rock formations.

Along with deliberate landscape fashioning, the winter goddess sometimes created land features by mistake. For example, after a long day of milking her deer herds, she lifted a rock on the side of Ben Cruachan to reveal a spring of fresh water to drink and bathe in. She was so tired, and the water was so refreshing, that she fell asleep without replacing the rock cap. When she awoke, the waters had rushed down the side of Ben Cruachan to form Lake Awe, the largest fresh water lake in Scotland.

The Cailleach, also known as the “Veiled One,” functions in many roles, including as a kind of wise old grandmother goddess. The hag crone gently encourages those whose earthly time is ended to cross to the spirit world while she stretches her veil across the winter landscape. Her association with Bride, however, indicates the promise of rebirth. She is a guardian and midwife of spring, for she protects the seeds so that they may sprout when her daughter comes to power.

The hag goddess of winter rides a wolf and has a particular affinity for black cats. She is also a fierce protector of all animals, especially horned animals such as wild cattle, goats, and deer. When her singing is heard in the forest, Scottish hunters give up their quest, knowing there will be no meal to catch.

Once, a desperate man with a large family to feed kept on searching until night fell, though not a deer was to be found. Eventually he built a fire, and inspired by the Calliach’s tune ringing through the forest, he sang a song about her clever ways. When he looked across the fire, the old hag was there with a twinkle in her eye. She explained that her herd was growing too large and she could use a brave hunter to cull it. If he would follow her song the next day, she would lead to him a deer he could shoot. From that time forth, he was always a successful hunter, thanks to the Cailleach’s respect for his cleverness in calling on her by singing her praises.

As the goddess of winter, the hag brings the wind, snow and ice. She plunges her staff into the ground to freeze it. Her magic can thicken lakes into icy slabs by dropping her plaid into the water. The Cailleach is also the goddess of the harvest, urging folk to gather in the crops when her gusts turn cold and the morning fields are rimmed with frost. In some places, a farmer’s wife makes a corn dolly, tossing it onto the field of a neighbor who has not finished his harvest. That neighbor, in turn, finishes and tosses it to another. Farmers are in fierce competition to not be the last to have the corn dolly, for then they will have to keep it throughout the winter, meaning they have to feed and house the winter hag all season as well.

As a goddess, the Cailleach has many complicated qualities that can be called upon by the worshipper. She has fierce strength, the power to both destroy and build, the power the protect life, whether of the animals or of the seeds, the power to grant the rejuvenation of deep sleep.

Deep in Glen Lyon, inaccessible by car, lies the tiny Glen Cailleach where an ancient indigenous shrine to the Cailleach can be found.

Tigh nan Cailleach, near Glen Lyon in Perthshire, Scotland By Richard Bisset - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10530829

Legend has it that if the small stone statues of the Cailleach and her husband and children are placed carefully inside this small turf roofed stone hut at Samhain (Halloween), the land will prosper. These same statures are brought out into the meadow in front of the hut at Beltane (May Day) to protect the land during the spring and summer months. The local people re-roof her hut at this time in a ceremony of gratitude to the Goddess. Researchers think this ritual has been performed at this site for thousands of years, and it is still performed today.

Matriarch of the glen: walking the Highlands’ hidden pilgrim trail

A walk to a remote pre-Christian shrine leaves our writer reflecting on the power of a mythical Highland woman – and how she is the perfect role model for our times

www.theguardian.com

The Cailleach has a famous daughter, the beautiful spring goddess Bride (known as Brigid in Ireland). The Cailleach is threatened by her daughter’s beauty, for it is so great that she is able to make ice melt and flowers grow merely by her glance. The Cailleach’s fear forces her to keep Bride imprisoned on the top of Ben Nevis, Scotland’s tallest mountain. Every day the hag forces Bride to do impossible tasks, and then punishes her when she fails.

One day, while Bride is trying unsuccessfully to wash the Cailleach’s plaid in the lake, a kindly old man appears. He is sympathetic to her plight and hands her a bouquet of snowdrops, suggesting that she show them to the Cailleach. The girl, determining she has nothing to lose, does so. The Cailleach, who knows that the flowers mean her power is beginning to wane, is furious. She rides to every corner of Scotland, shaking her staff and burying the land in snow, ice and frost.

Ben Cruachan, highest point in Argyll and Bute, home of the Cailleach nan Cruachan, By Graham Lewis - Ben Cruachan, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26172267

The kind old man turns out to be Angus, the prince of summer, in disguise. He rescues Bride from the imprisonment of the Cailleach and flies with her to the Isle of Summer. They dwell there happily, but the goddess Bride misses Scotland, so the couple returns to visit again and again. Each time, the sun shines brighter, the earth warms more, the trees bud and leaf, and the flowers grow more plentiful. The winter goddess throws wind and cold at them with less and less success, until finally the Cailleach gives up in exhaustion on Beltane (May Day), going to sleep again until Samhain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joKYWzzjuro

Bride, the Celtic goddess of spring, is welcomed across Scotland and Ireland on Imbolc (February 1) because Angus first rescues her then, and also because it is when ewes first give milk. Bride is not only the goddess of spring, but also of fire, of the forge, of light itself, of dawn, of fertility, of healing, of water (she has many holy wells and rivers associated with her), and of inspiration, especially for writing poetry. She is also associated with serpents, because they shed their skins and are thus symbols of regeneration.

Bride is a liminal goddess, meaning that she reigns over the in-between. Spring is a slow and subtle time between winter and summer. Dawn is a subtle time between night and day. Bride, according to legend, was born in a doorsill, thus neither inside nor outside.This goddess governs becoming, emerging, forming. She governs the forge, in which metal is formed, and poetry, in which meaning and image are formed. She governs water, which is the original womb of all life on earth.

One of her most ancient names was Breo-saighead, the fiery arrow, the goddess who brings light from darkness. The season of Imbolc does not bring the bright sun of summer, but rather the subtle shift of the angle of the sun’s rays slowly marches toward the equinox and eventually the summer solstice. Once again, she is a subtle goddess, the slow birther.

Labbacallee wedge tomb or "The Hag's Bed", near Glanworth, County Cork, By VisionsofthePast - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35693041

As a goddess associated with light, Bride is involved with spiritual wisdom, truth, healing, prophecy, and divination. These arts grow slowly to fruition, though their ultimate flowering may appear as a sudden burst. This is also true of the plant and animal kingdoms, where the slow period of gestation ends with the sudden birthing of a baby animal or a flowering tree. She is thus associated with healthy livestock and crops.

Fire, of course, melts snow and warms things. The Druids, who worshipped Bride, are said to have kept a perpetual fire alive in her honor. Such fires may have been burned for her up to the fifteenth century, by which time she had been conflated with Saint Brigid of Kildare and had found favor with nuns. The Druids also associated the goddess with their important bardic traditions, which preserved history through the recitation of poetry.

Today in Scotland, it is common to leave a strip of cloth or a piece of clothing outside on the eve of Imbolc so that it collects dew overnight. Bride bestows this dew as a blessing for the health and well-being of the family. People fashion special “Bride’s crosses” (AKA “Brigid’s Crosses”) from reeds or straw and hang them on the door for protection. Traditionalists eat special bannocks (Scottish quick bread), and may drink the milk of ewes if it is available. They cleanse the hearth of old ashes and lay a new fire for Bride. In homes lacking a hearth, people light candles in her honor. Young girls make Bride dolls of straw or reeds and carry them from home to home to bring blessings.

The weather on Imbolc determines the length of remaining winter. If the weather is sunny, the Cailleach is gathering a large amount of firewood and winter will be long. If the weather is foul, she gathers less and spring will come sooner. This Scottish tradition is the precursor to the American tradition of Groundhog Day. In this small way, the goddesses of Scotland still influence those of us in the “New World.”

The Eternal Dumpster Fire of Rupert Sheldrake’s Wikipedia Biography

Wikipedia is a tragic mess of epic proportions and its crowning dumpster fire is Rupert Sheldrake’s highly contentious biography. It’s been a Wikipedia battleground ever since his TEDx Talk at Whitechapel in 2013. This was all covered in my book: PSI WARS: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet. Sheldrake had his video taken down from the main TED website -essentially banned - and there was a big uproar over the whole thing.

ruper

Prior to that time, Rupert had a decent Wikipedia page, but as his notoriety grew, his page became the playground of his enemies, making him look worse and worse as they edited out his accomplishments and plastered the word “pseudoscience” everywhere. It’s got the fingerprints of the Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia all over it. They are an anti-intellectual atheist materialist Wikipedia editing group dedicated to teaching the world that we have brains, but no minds. But first, a little backstory.

At the time, Rupert was talking about his then new book Science Set Free, where he talked about the ten dogmas of science, which are worth repeating here because it clarifies what ideologies are at play:

The Ten Dogmas of Science

1. Everything, including all living things, are essentially mechanical.
2. All matter is unconscious. Subjectivity doesn’t exist.
3. The total amount of energy and matter is always the same.
4. The laws of nature are fixed.
5. Nature is purposeless, and evolution has no goal or direction. Everything happens according to random processes.
6. All biological inheritance is material, carried in the genetic material, DNA and in other material structures. Mind and intent play no part.
7. Minds are inside the head and are nothing but the activities of brains.
8. Memories are stored as material traces in brains and are wiped out at death.
9. Unexplained phenomena like telepathy are illusory. They are a trick of the mind.
10. Mechanistic medicine is the only kind that really works. Natural remedies of any sort are ineffective.

Rupert Sheldrake Has Enemies

The enemies of Sheldrake who control his biography absolutely believe these dogmas as though they were etched in stone. This is what Sheldrake was challenging in his book. He argued that we should question these beliefs and that there were other ways to conceptualize the universe.

Sheldrake is at home with ideas like collective consciousness and telepathy and his most well known theory, morphic resonance, relies on these concepts. Morphic Resonance describes how entire species have a collective mind that they draw upon to spread information. This, of course, runs entirely counter to the beliefs of these zealot editors.

Rupert’s Popularity

As far as Wikipedia goes, what’s interesting about Sheldrake is that he is a popular figure with a lot of very science-literate followers. So naturally, when people see the abysmal state of his biography, they step up to see if they can help. This has been going on for years. You can see it in the talk page right at the top:

How to violate the Wikipedia Neutral Point of View by requiring bias in targeted articles.

Here, let me translate it for you: “A common objection by people with actual scholarship abilities is that this biography is utter garbage. Although we control this page with an iron fist, we need to maintain the pretense that we’re following the rules, so we’re calling it fringe and pseudoscience, a decision you are not allowed to object to. “Any evidence you provide showing that he is not fringe or pseudoscience will be treated as fringe and pseudoscience, thereby proving you wrong.”

Failures Of Skeptics

That banner, in other words, is an advertisement for the Guerrilla Skeptic’s utter failure to be able to intellectually defend their position. Instead, they’ve resorted to a line of reasoning that would be more at home in a Monty Python sketch.

I’m going to use one of Rupert’s favorite methods of cutting through the noise: phrase this as a question. Is he fringe? Is it pseudoscience? If the answer to both is no, then all the other objections to a neutral biography are moot.

The Wikipedia Fringe Label

Is Rupert Sheldrake fringe? By the Wikipedia definition, fringe is defined as: an idea that departs significantly from the prevailing views or mainstream views in its particular field. Is Morphic Resonance fringe by this definition? The answer is no if you stay within the context of how scientific inquiry and exploration normally works. Fringe within the context of science means that the concept won’t pass ordinary peer review within its own field, much less get into more generalized journals like Nature. Fringe, as it applies to science, is usually one person pushing an idea that no one else takes seriously.

Morphic resonance passes the basic test of science in that it is falsifiable. You can run experiments that test the theory, which has been done. There are also references to it from other scientists as early as 1938, (Spemann), (Weiss, 1939).

Morphic Resonance is taken seriously by other scientists and references to it can be found in various journals and some experimental evidence supports it, particularly within its field. This is science that is going through the ordinary process of discovery at the usual snail’s pace. Adoption hinges on some rethinking of the fundamental assumptions that Sheldrake addressed in his TED talk. And scientific testing of Morphic Resonance is part of what is creating the need for this rethinking.

The whole discussion of the nature of the universe is a huge scientific controversy that has been growing. There are consciousness researchers currently making submissions for a $100,000 prize. There are a number of people closing in on theories of consciousness in physics, which has gained momentum due to the 2022 Nobel Prizes in physics.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2022 was awarded jointly to Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger "for experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell inequalities and pioneering quantum information science."

Information is a form of consciousness, so this prize is essentially saying that there is consciousness in physics, which in turn makes Morphic Resonance quite plausible. The objection that the theory somehow defies physics is removed here. It isn’t enough to rely on second sources for this topic because there are legitimately competing views. Labeling the theory (and the man) as fringe is a way of taking sides in a debate that Wikipedia editors are woefully unqualified to tackle.

The Wikipedia Pseudoscience Label

Then we move on to the designation of “pseudoscience.” The Wikipedia definition is:

Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; absence of systematic practices when developing hypotheses; and continued adherence long after the pseudoscientific hypotheses have been experimentally discredited.[4]

Let’s go through this list for Morphic Resonance:

1. Contradictory? No
2. Exaggerated? No
3. falsifiable? Yes
4. Reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation? No
5. Lack of openness to evaluation by other experts? No
6. Absence of systematic practices? No
7. Continued adherence after experimentally discredited? N/A

The term pseudoscience, as applied here, is nothing more than a skeptical dog whistle; a trademark of the atheist materialist Guerrilla Skeptics on Wikipedia. It does not apply to parapsychology, which has a scientific organization, the Parapsychological Association, that is an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. There isn’t more an organization can do to establish its legitimacy. But that is ignored in the article. The Guerrilla Skeptics, who clearly have an iron grip on this article, peddle their secular humanist propaganda by manipulating Wikipedia articles and biographies.

Why You Can’t Rely on Sourcing on Wikipedia

This manipulation is most visible in the sourcing: This is important because journalists often skip the article, but then rely on sourcing. That doesn’t work either. The following sources cited in this article are associated in some way with the Center for Inquiry/Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI)/the Skeptical Inquirer/Prometheus Books:

• 5. A book containing articles by fellows of CSI: David Gorski, Chris French
• 6. Skeptical Inquirer
• 8. One of the writers is a CSI fellow: Massimo Pigliucci
• 11. Skeptical Inquirer
• 14. Prometheus Books
• 17. Founder of CSI: Martin Gardner
• 23. CSI Fellow: Jerry Coyne
• 24. CSI Fellow: Susan Blackmore
• 26. Not a CSI Fellow, but aligned with them. Pub. of Skeptic Magazine: Michael Shermer
• 32. See 26. Shermer
• 33. See 26. Shermer
• 60. See 26. Shermer
• 65 CSI Fellow: Robert Todd Carroll
• 66. CSI Fellow: Susan Blackmore
• 68. CSI Fellow: James Alcock
• 69. CSI Fellow: Richard Wiseman
• 82. CSI Fellow: Susan Blackmore
• 84. CSI FEllow: Richard Wiseman
• 90. Skeptical Inquirer
• 91. Skeptical Inquirer
• 92. Skeptical Inquirer
• 93. See 26. Shermer
• 97. CSI Fellow: Massimo Pigliucci

Special mention to Steven Rose, a distinguished supporter of the British organization, Humanists UK. He is cited on: 20, 27, 123, 127, 132.

In case you were wondering, four of these people have a legitimate reason to be cited in some specific situations: Richard Wiseman replicated one of Sheldrake’s experiments where they did testing on whether dogs know that their owner is coming home. Susan Blackmore wrote a couple of specific critiques on specific experiments, and Steven Rose critiqued Morphic Resonance.

They were involved in scientific discussions that are part of the process. Rose’s critique can be found in full on Rupert Sheldrake’s website, but in an act of pettiness, the Guerrilla Skeptics have chosen to cite the Wayback machine, lest anyone be exposed to the horrors of woo. The interaction with Shermer was an unnecessary addition to the biography.

This isn’t a biography, it’s an advertisement for these skeptics, all of whom have well done, complimentary Wikipedia biographies. It’s an example of reward your friends, punish your enemies.

Misrepresentation of Research by omitting Rebuttals

I suppose I should mention that the article makes a hash of Rupert Sheldrake’s work by over emphasizing criticism and leaving out rebuttals and positive attributes. For example, in the section on dogs that know when their owner is coming home, Richard Wiseman replicated the experiment and got the same results as Sheldrake. Rather than admit this, he simply moved the goal posts, adding criteria that were not in the original experiment and then declared the experiment a failure.

https://www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/papers/The-Psychic-Pet-Phenomenon.pdf

In the case of Blackmore’s objection, Sheldrake wrote:

https://www.sheldrake.org/files/pdfs/papers/The-Psychic-Pet-Phenomenon.pdf

If you have to cheat, to make someone look bad, you are not winning your intellectual war.

It’s not just Rupert Sheldrake; it’s not just Parapsychology; it’s a whole weird list of things that these atheists object to. They are on a crusade against chiropractors and Santa Claus as well. As stated earlier, they claim that we are just brains and chemical processes and that consciousness is just a brain process and doesn’t actually exist. They truly don’t believe that we have minds.

One cannot help but wonder if this belief in mindlessness isn’t just a bit of self reflection.

Tapping into the Earth's Pulse: The Power of Dowsing and the Empowering Teachings of Raymon Grace

Dowsing emerges as a captivating connection, bridging the gap between the visible and the invisible within a realm teeming with hidden energies and uncharted potentials. This ancient practice, shrouded in mystery and enriched by tradition, finds a vibrant warrior in an individual who is renowned in the field. His name is Raymon Grace—a man who has become synonymous with the art and power of dowsing. Grace wields his tools with mastery and possesses a treasure trove of captivating stories, which not only unveil the Earth's mysteries but also unleash the dormant potential within each individual. We delve into the world of dowsing through the lens of Raymon Grace's transformative teachings.

Understanding Dowsing and Its Power

Dowsing, an ancient technique, involves skilled practitioners utilizing various tools like rods, pendulums, or even humble twigs to successfully locate elusive treasures like water sources, minerals, or other hidden resources. Beyond its practical applications, dowsing is a journey into the subtler realms of energy and intuition. In spite of the skepticism and ongoing debates surrounding its scientific foundation, dowsing remains a captivating practice that seamlessly bridges the realm of earthly wisdom with ethereal connections. However, perhaps not as well known is the power within the art of dowsing. It has the ability to become a transformational experience that can turn someone’s life around or become the catalyst to a deep healing.

Raymon Grace: A Living Legend

Raymon Grace, hailing from the rolling landscapes of Virginia, is a towering figure in the world of dowsing. A real cowboy character with wisdom and wit, and a charismatic speaker. With his extensive expertise acquired over the course of many decades, he truly personifies the essence of a genuine dowser. He not only possesses the gift to unveil the hidden depths of spirituality and the Earth, but he is also dedicated to unearthing the untapped potential that lies within each individual.

What I appreciate about him is his no nonsense attitude to things. He has a strong connection with Native Americans and learned from them to develop his unique spiritual insights. With his extensive expertise acquired over the course of many decades, he truly personifies the essence of a genuine dowser. He not only possesses the gift to unveil the hidden depths of spirituality and the Earth, but he is also dedicated to unearthing the untapped potential that lies within each individual.

Raymon is a spiritual warrior and has no time for evil acts in the world. He resolves problems that originate in the etheric to prevent them from appearing in the material world. Once they emerge, he promptly eradicates any vestige of negativity or malevolent deeds. Whilst this may seem unbelievable, truth really is often stranger than fiction. Consequently, he has won accolades from very high quarters for his work and dedication to humanity. Yet, he is a humble man and one that I tower above, but only in height. He is a giant in his world with no real equal.

Grace Empowerment

Raymon's philosophy is one of empowerment. He perceives dowsing not merely as a method for locating water or minerals, but rather as a powerful instrument for individual and societal metamorphosis. His unique approach intertwines traditional dowsing methods with an expansive understanding of human consciousness and the power of positive intent. He also transforms water, similar to the astounding occurrences recorded in history. However, he does not convert it into wine, but rather into a sublime substance vibrating at a higher frequency, endowed with the power to heal. He manipulates time, banishes spirits, and tackles cases that demand his intervention to cleanse the criminal underworld.

I am quite a scientifically minded individual. When it comes to other worldly phenomena and mediumship, evidence for me is a prerequisite to my acceptance. Much to my delight, Raymon has a plethora of verified feats that challenge science and has taken part in scientific research. All he wants to do in the world is ‘good,’ and to serve those who are in need, but be aware, he is no fool.

An Invite To Experience Raymon Grace Teachings First Hand

I was very fortunate to be invited to one of Raymon’s workshops as his guest and experience first hand what he teaches. I attended day 2 of the workshop along with 50-60 other participants who attended day 1, including my wife who has been a student of Raymon’s. He also endorsed her latest book ‘Clear Spirit, the Life Changing Power of Energy Clearing.’

Now I cannot profess to know much about dowsing and haven’t had any personal experiences, but I have witnessed its power from the work my wife has done and heard stories of the somewhat miraculous works of Raymon himself. Always the skeptical enquirer, I was delighted to find that many of Raymon’s extraordinary stories were true, including scientific validations of his ability, and many others who attested to healings and transformations.

New Age - Not Me

You may think that Raymon's teachings are exclusively for individuals who gravitate towards the new age movement and harbor the belief that they possess the power to instantaneously transform the world through love and mere thoughts, or by employing dowsing to halt warfare. Absolutely not! That's not the way things work and shows a lack of understanding of the mechanics of spirit and divine law. Now I am not saying that everyone is all light and love, not at all. Although, even though some people may have incorrect beliefs and unrealistic expectations, I have met many extraordinary individuals.

Raymon’s students range from military officials, doctors, scientists and many other people who have a genuine passion to serve humanity. They are all amazing people. I met a couple of women who are in business together and who use the power of dowsing to develop beautiful landscapes in California. For me that was quite a remarkable story, and you will hear more from Martha and Marta in a future article. Or Nancy who lives right on the Gettysburg battlefield and who recalled stories of phenomena she has experienced in the area. Who knows, a PDN visit could come out of that.

Clearing Negative Energy

Ruth decided to travel to Raymon’s class just after the war started with Israel. She had studied some of his videos and felt her passion stir within. She also believes in the power of healing. Ruth's son, who is currently studying in Israel, is a subject of great concern for her. She firmly believes in doing everything possible to help him and others who are suffering, even if it involves clearing negative energy. Now that is selfless service.

No one told me I could not do it

I will never forget one of the messages that really struck me. Despite my initial skepticism, something stood out and strongly impacted me. Raymon Grace was telling one of his stories about his dowsing projects, which seemed unbelievable and like something out of a Harry Potter movie. Very matter of fact and nonchalantly, he states;

“No one told me I couldn't do it and I don’t know what I don’t know, so I did it anyway.”

And what he did, worked. I am not going to recount one of those stories but suggest you attend one of his workshops.

The Power of Stories in Teaching

At the heart of Raymon Grace's teachings are his stories—narratives rich with wisdom, humor, and insight. These stories offer more than just entertainment. They are vessels of knowledge, intricately woven with experiences that deeply resonate with his audience. Through tales of dowsing triumphs, community healing, and personal revelations, Grace illustrates the profound impact of dowsing, making the intangible tangibly powerful. To truly grasp the profound wisdom within a story, one must listen attentively to the unspoken messages it conveys. Only then can you fully immerse yourself in its rich and profound teachings. After all, as human beings, we are built for story telling, so what better way to transmit knowledge through story. The Native Americans, who are embedded in Raymon’s philosophy, are often taught through stories and communicate through stories.

Empowering Through Dowsing

Central to Grace's mission is the empowerment of individuals and the capacity within each person to affect change. One of his principles is that ‘energy follows thought.’ He firmly believes in the ability of dowsing to unlock personal growth and community well-being. His workshops are more than just lessons on how to find water or clear energies; they are transformative experiences that provide individuals with the necessary tools to access their inner potential and create positive transformations in both their personal lives and surroundings.

Continuing the Journey

Raymon Grace's legacy is an ongoing narrative of inspiration and empowerment. His work has spawned a vibrant community of dowsers, eager to explore the mysteries of the Earth and harness the potential within themselves. Through books, seminars, and personal engagements, Grace continues to spread the message of dowsing, not as a mere practice, but as a path to empowerment and a deeper understanding of the world. He is further on in his years and I hope that he will continue to share his wisdom until he takes his last breath. I felt truly honored to be in his presence and to witness at first hand the passion he has for serving humanity.

Final Thought

In Raymon Grace's enduring journey with dowsing, we find a profound lesson—the Earth speaks to those who listen, and within its whispers lie secrets waiting to be discovered. Grace's life is a testament to the transformative power of dowsing, not only as a means to find water or minerals but as a tool for personal empowerment and communal harmony.

As we stand amidst the energies that weave through our world, we are reminded of the power of stories, the strength of intent, and the unyielding potential that resides within each of us. Raymon Grace's teachings invite us to embark on this journey of discovery, to harness the power of dowsing, and to awaken the dormant capabilities that await within the depths of our being.

One great gift I received from that weekend was meeting the people at the seminar and spending time with individuals who just wanted to end suffering.

Finally, keep tuned in as Raymon will be my guest on Deadly Departed. If you have a question, send your questions to: editor@paranormaldailynews.com

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Two new paranormal TV shows are changing the landscape of ghost-hunting shows

A few months ago, I joined a team of paranormal investigators, visiting haunted locations for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood. The two shows aim to present a new outlook on the supernatural, showcasing the esteemed specialist in the occult, Michelle Belanger. Her expertise has been previously displayed on several publications such as Paranormal State, Portals to Hell, Conjuring Kesha, among others. Locations have been chosen for the first season of a brand-new indie ghost-hunting show called Inhuman Beings. This month, we launched a Kickstarter to finish Inhuman Beings and a paranormal documentary series called New Blood.

Inhuman Beings

Each episode of Inhuman Beings features a different location with a reputation for high strangeness. Rather than trying to banish ghosts or uncover demons, we approach the unknown with a sense of curiosity, keeping an open mind and looking into ghosts, UFOs, cryptids, the fae, and more.

We use some traditional paranormal investigation techniques, experimenting with REM pods, spirit boxes, a Kinect SLS camera, and an Ovilus. But we also get weird, trying out remote viewing experiments, using dream sigils to communicate with entities, and following our curiosity as far down the rabbit hole as we can go.

That led us to some strange places. During production, we found ourselves crossing a remote river to visit land ruled by the fae, exploring a strange castle with a mysterious past, and investigating the most haunted building in a small town.

As the team’s paranormal researcher, I dug into the locations before filming and was floored by how many anomalies had been reported in each spot.

In one episode, we venture to the area of the original Loveland frogman sightings, along the banks of Ohio’s Little Miami River. While doing preliminary research, I couldn’t believe how much lore was concentrated in one small area and how interconnected the different paranormal phenomena were there.

I had heard the famous 1950s story about a man encountering strange, frog-like humanoids—one of whom carried a wand emitting sparks—but the more research I did, the more reports I found about local sightings of UFOs, cryptids, aliens, and ghosts.

That was my first hint that things were going to get a lot stranger than I had expected. However, I was not fully prepared for the firsthand experiences we had when we arrived at the site and engaged in conversations with the locals, conducted our own experiments, and gained a true understanding of what the place was truly like.

New Blood

Much of the cast and crew of Inhuman Beings are also in New Blood, a longform docu-series about modern-day vampires.

In New Blood, a series of synchronicities leads witch and host of paranormal podcast Follow the Woo Fen Alankus (she/they) to move from LA to the spooky Midwest. There, she conjures an investigative film crew to document a secret society of vampires.

They delve into the mysterious world of vampires while staying in a haunted Airbnb. The experience, which involves visiting sacred vampire ritual spaces, braving the creepy woods of Ohio, and performing out-of-the-box psychical experiments and spells, changes all of them. Season one was a wild ride, and the next phases of initiation have already begun for the team.

The Kickstarter and team

Michelle Belanger (he/she/they) and Fen Alankus (she/they) have gathered a top-notch crew of film professionals and paranormal investigators. That includes historian and medium Stephanie Bingham (she/her), who has been featured on the CW’s Mysteries Decoded, Destination America’s Paranormal Lockdown and SyFy Channel’s School Spirits; tarot/oracle reader Tigresse Bleu (they/she); filmmaker, forager, and hedgewitch Aubrey P. Archer (they/them); and photographer and skeptic-turned-believer Taylor Brown (she/they), and me.

More than 100 hours of footage have already been shot for these shows, and both shows are slated for release in Fall/Winter 2023.

With the Kickstarter funding, the team will finish up the first seasons of both shows, start pre-production on the next seasons, and more. Backers get rewards like magically imbued Ouija planchettes, Bigfoot and Pride Demon T-shirts, subtle-body portrait readings, bonus and behind-the-scenes content, executive producer credit, guest spots on their shows, and more. Spread the word and help bring this fresh paranormal project into the world!

Wikipedia and the Paranormal

I’ll get to Wikipedia in a moment, but first a little background. One of the more depressing aspects of my job as a Parapsychology journalist is dealing with the skepticism. It’s not that skepticism isn’t warranted when dealing with the paranormal, it absolutely is, it’s that the vast majority of skepticism is just . . . bad. Any open minded person arguing with people who are strongly skeptical quickly realizes that their claim to being tough minded and objective is really just stubborn people never admitting to being wrong. It’s not critical thinking, it’s just . . . tedious.

Where skepticism really goes off the rails is when it becomes a belief system. This is what I documented in my book PSI WARS: TED, Wikipedia and the Battle for the Internet. The skepticism has become more of a fringe atheist religious-like crusade to bring rationality to an increasingly irrational world, it seems like it should be a good thing. Who doesn’t want more rationality? Amiright?

Pseudoskepticism

In practice, what they do is properly called pseudoskepticism, which isn’t a careful analysis of specific objections, but rather a general dismissal of both people and subjects that they disagree with. Even the word “rationality” becomes a sort of dog whistle.

In their case rationality refers to a very specific belief system that these skeptics fully embrace: They believe in a material universe. (This is increasingly up for debate as quantum physics repeatedly demonstrates that the universe is entangled and not locally real. As Rovelli pointed out, even physics itself is relational.)

This materialistic belief, which is at the core of this true believer skepticism, leads to assumptions about reality which these skeptics hotly defend. They believe that psychic ability can’t possibly exist and its study is pure pseudoscience (another skeptic dog whistle); holistic medicine is nonsense and is also pseudoscience. One finds this all over Wikipedia now. Reddit User Hastener_Of_Days wrote this assessment.

The way the terms "pseudoscience" and "fringe" are used on Wikipedia, is now akin to jewtagging. It's really quite disgusting. In the Wikipedia coverage of any of these areas, most notably Homeopathy, readers are treated like children, and are quite literally beaten over the head and forced to a conclusion. This is distinct from the original Wikipedia model of neutrality, where you simply present the facts, in due proportion to their reliability, and trust the reader to come to the right conclusion.

Weird Skepticism

When you travel down the rabbit hole of this organized skepticism it gets really weird. Congratulating children on discovering that Santa Claus isn’t real; attacking naturopathy, (the science of promoting self healing in the body. It’s a licensed profession found in many hospitals); licensed chiropractors (found everywhere, accepted by insurance companies) are also apparently pseudoscience to them for . . . reasons. Religion is an infantile belief that does more harm than good. Religions are responsible for most wars.

And now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to discuss Wikipedia and the Paranormal.

Bias and Lack of Scholarship

If you concentrate on Wikipedia articles about holistic medicine, or the paranormal, you’ll find that most of the articles are not just written from a skeptical point of view, but one that is strikingly similar to that of a particular skeptic organization.

Wikipedia, for example claims the following about parapsychology:

Criticized as being a pseudoscience, the majority of mainstream scientists reject it.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Parapsychology has also been criticised by mainstream critics for many of its practitioners claiming that their studies are plausible in spite of there being no convincing evidence for the existence of any psychic phenomena after more than a century of research.[1][10][11]

What is wrong with this? What’s not wrong with it? Parapsychology isn’t a pseudoscience. The Parapsychological Association is an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Here is a quote from a paper by a very skeptical critic who has worked with parapsychologists and is familiar with the research:

Parapsychology at its best—as exemplified by, for example, the articles in the Journal of Parapsychology—appears to meet most if not all of the benchmarks of true science as opposed to pseudoscience.

His views are shared by other skeptics familiar with the research such as Richard Wiseman and Susan Blackmore. When you limit your search to the tiny handful of critics who actually engage with the research you come away with an entirely different take on this scientific field.

Bad Citations

Some of their citations to back up this Wikipedia article are over over 30 years old, others are just someone’s opinion that they wrote down, unsupported by evidence. One says the opposite of what they’re claiming. This isn’t what valid citations look like; it’s just Wikipedia editors scrounging up whatever they can find to support their weak argument.

And lastly, we see the claim that there is no convincing evidence. Here is a paper that Wikipedia editors seem to have mysteriously failed to cite despite the fact that it’s extremely well known within the field:

The Experimental Evidence for Parapsychological Phenomena: A Review

Parapsychology is an area of expertise for me; I can see the flaws in articles like this because I know what’s missing and where the editors are making claims that I know aren’t true. I have read many of the documents they’re referencing, I know who’s who in this field, when someone is just a poser and who is the real deal.

It’s Worse than Mere Incompetence

The Wikipedia editors had to go out of their way to make this article as blatantly false as it is. This isn’t incompetence; it’s deliberate. And it isn’t a one off either. The vast majority of articles related to parapsychology of any substance are treated this way, including biographies.

This extends into articles about the paranormal, including psychics and mediums and also pretty much any holistic medicine or holistic medical practice you care to name. They are so littered with references to criticism that you’d think this was a gossip column and not an encyclopedia.

To understand why Wikipedia is horrifically inaccurate and/or misleading about paranormal topics and holistic medicine, you need to understand the connection between the editors and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).

The Link between Organized Skepticism and Wikipedia

CSI is an organization dedicated to skepticism. They publish the Skeptical Inquirer and came into being at a convention of the American Humanist Association in 1976. It was founded by Paul Kurz and Marcello Truzzi. Truzzi left the organization after realizing that impartiality wasn’t the goal.

Because the organization is driven by a non mainstream atheistic belief that the paranormal is impossible and that they, the chosen few, are providing rationality to an increasingly superstitious and irrational world, this has led to their never ending battle against an increasingly convincing body of scientific evidence, with at least one of their leading skeptics grudgingly conceding first that parapsychology is a real science and then that the results of some of the experiments are valid.

And as I said earlier, they dismiss chiropractic care, naturopathy, acupuncture and other generally accepted holistic medical practices as pseudoscience. For those interested in a longer read of their history, here is an article by the late Guy Lyon Playfair. (here) There is also an accounting of their deliberate attempt to suppress the results of an experiment they conducted when they didn’t get the results they wanted. (here)

This cultist skeptical organization and others like it, form an echo chamber where they cherry-pick their way to conclusions they want, often relying on their own members to form the arguments and then citing those as proof. They pounce on positive portrayals of psychic ability or holistic medicine, making sure to write articles and then seek media attention to promote their viewpoint.

The Guerrilla Skeptics of Wikipedia

Out of this toxic stew, the Guerrilla Skeptics of Wikipedia was born. I first found out about them after I’d finished reporting on parapsychologist Rupert Sheldrake’s dust up with TED talks and had started writing my book about the controversy in 2013.

Sheldrake, at the time, was the subject of a great deal of controversy after his TED talk was banished to the hinterlands of an unsearchable corner of TED. He is notable enough to have a Wikipedia page written about him and his Wikipedia page got worse in proportion to the increase in fame he was experiencing. A few Wikipedia editors with an agenda had targeted him and were making changes to his biography to portray him as a pseudo scientist and quack.

It was strongly suspected by journalists who cover this subject, Greg Taylor of the Daily Grail, myself and Robert McLuhan, who works with the Society for Psychical Research, that the Guerrilla Skeptics had a hand in this. They never admitted to it and they operate in such secrecy that this could never be factually established. Susan Gerbic, founder of the Guerrilla Skeptics wrote in the Skeptical inquirer:

Plus, when asked, I always refused to offer transparency of who our members are, what conversations we have been having, or what pages we have worked on.

The Problem of Secret Editing Groups

Except for Gerbic herself, who uses her real name on the platform and personally operates in the open, no one really knows who they are or what they’re doing. That this has been allowed to exist on Wikipedia is a clear demonstration of the flaws inherent in the platform. So what is the problem of an organization like the Guerrilla Skeptics? A reddit user familiar with Wikipedia outlined the issues:

With the advantage of being able to coordinate in private without anyone on Wikipedia knowing these people are acting as a group, it is if course suspected that GS [Guerrilla Skeptics] breaks any number of really quite important Wikipedia rules. Rules against canvassing, rules against vote stacking, rules against using blocking powers in your own interests, and rules that say you must declare any relevant conflicts of interest.

The rules that essentially ensure that Wikipedia is a level playing field for all editors, equal under the wiki law, given the same opportunity to propose and defend their edits as anyone else, and letting the benign force of consensus result in the best edit for Wikipedia.

Even other Wikipedia editors are sick of them and put them on trial. But on a platform that allows anonymous editors, all kinds of shenanigans can take place which cannot be prevented. This includes individuals being both editors and their own administrators under different names, organized editing to capture administrative positions and control arbitration processes.

If they have succeeded at this, they can then ban other editors over disagreements by misusing Wikipedia’s own rules. A product of anonymous editing is that a secret group can gain de facto control over information on sections of the encyclopedia.

Wikipedia Cannot Prevent This

Wikipedia’s enforcement abilities are limited to banning specific editors. Even if they had decided to ban the Guerrilla Skeptics entirely they could not have done so. They don’t know who the members of the organization are; nor would it help if they did know. Banned members only need to come back under a different name. They can ban IP addresses, but it’s easy enough to get around that.

I see little reason to doubt that they are behind the steady degradation of paranormal topics on Wikipedia. when one sees the Wikipedia treatment of various paranormal subjects, one finds many references to articles by CSI fellows, Skeptical Inquirer articles and other sources that are unique to the skeptic community. Various members of CSI and their editors have favorable Wikipedia pages, while their paranormal and parapsychology counterparts are either omitted or their Wikipedia pages contain a lot of skepticism. This type of editing is literally their mission.

Guerrilla Skeptics = The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

If one needed further proof of the connection, one needs to look no farther than the Skeptical Inquirer, the magazine of CSI. Gerbic writes for it and they have a page for her. She’s described as their Wikipediatrian. It’s safe to say that her views and theirs align.

The result is that there’s a never ending stream of edits to paranormal articles on Wikipedia that all look like they were written by people from the same group with the same agenda. It might be acceptable if it was all out in the open, but the fact that it’s being organized by a group that claims to be benign, but collaborates in secrecy creates serious credibility problems for Wikipedia.

Their secrecy is a double edged sword. On the one hand they have plausible deniability, but on the other hand there is absolutely no reason to trust anything Gerbic says. “We operate in total secrecy, but you can trust us.” is not convincing to any objective party.

Fair Minded Scholarship is Missing From Wikipedia

For many of these articles, particularly for anything related to parapsychology, there are a number of knowledgeable people who could contribute sufficient documentation to balance the articles, but have been shut out of the process. They have run into coordinated efforts that rebuffed their attempts and in some cases, kicked them off Wikipedia, solely for scholarly disagreement. They are simply shut out of the process. I documented a couple of these cases in my book, and I know of others.

You have to be organized to do that. It takes several people working together to kick someone off that platform. And the only organization that exists on Wikipedia with the means and the motivation is the Guerrilla Skeptics. It would also partly explain why they operate in secrecy because ganging up to kick people off the platform for the kind of disagreement that is supposed to be a normal part of the Wikipedia process is frowned upon, to say the very least.

Wikipedia Can be Fixed

All of this could be fixed with a couple of changes to how Wikipedia is edited.

1. Require people to use their verified real name to edit. So many problems can be solved by just this one thing. When people are tethered to their online behavior, they tend to be less obnoxious.
2. Ranking by real world expertise. Once Wikipedia limits people to using their real names, they can be ranked by their real world expertise and removed from discussions where they have nothing important to contribute. If an area has a governing body, they have the final say. Encyclopedia articles are supposed to tell you about the subject matter and the best people to do that are those that are experts in that field. True experts generally know what the evidence is, both for and against their subject.

Do those two things and many of Wikipedia’s worst problems will go away. People with actual expertise will be able to edit and trolls will be powerless to stop them.