CENTER POINT
THE CENTER FOR SELF-CHANGE NEWSLETTER

Vol. 3, No. 10 - October, 2009

   Something to Think About      

Fifteen apparitions have I seen; The   
worst a coat upon a coat-hanger. [1]   

At times there is no essential difference between   
the ghosts of the world and the ghosts of the mind. [2]   

GHOSTS OF THE MIND

J. Kingston Cowart
"The Change Maker"

Modern investigative technology is amazing.

Here's an example. We are now able to enter into rooms long after people have left them and, using high-tech scanning devices, produce "ghost images" of who was sitting where and how they may have walked about the room — by reading the heat signatures they left behind.

This supports to some extent that idea that past events can leave "impressions" which some people are able to perceive years later.

Maybe that explains the following story from York, England.

It gives us something to think about this Halloween, as little ghosts appear on our doorsteps.

Harry Martindale is a retired British police officer who was 18 years old in 1953. He was young and naturally had no particular expertise in Roman history. Yet one day that year he saw a cohort of Roman legionnaires march past him so clearly that the accuracy of his descriptions of them, their uniforms, and equipment greatly impressed many scholars and historians at the time.

He was working alone in a cellar room at the Treasurer's House in York when it happened. That is a medieval building adjoining the city's cathedral. The event began when he heard a horn of some kind which at first he thought must have come from the church.

But then, as he looked across the room, he saw about 20 Roman legionnaires on foot and another on horseback march out of a wall and across the basement before disappearing into solid stone at the other side.

During the 2004 York Ghost Festival leading up to All Hallow's Eve, he told his story once again - for the first time in many years.

"They were human beings," he said. "They were as real as you and me standing here." Admitting that he had no idea why he was able to see them, he stated nonetheless that "there is no doubt in my mind what I saw."

Some years after Martindale's "vision," excavations in the cellar revealed it was on the direct route of an old Roman road leading to a military garrison.

If Martindale's story is true then the horn he heard would have been a signal alerting the watch at the garrison gate that the cohort was about to arrive.

Perhaps young Harry saw real Roman ghosts, still going about their business in this world for some reason unknown to us.

Or perhaps he was simply able to perceive the "signature" the legionnaires left behind in their march to the garrison.

I don't know. I don't know Harry Martindale and I can't say how true his tale may or may not be.

As a therapist, however, I do know that many of us have had our own experiences with apparitions (ghostly appearances).

When I was young, a twelve-year old boy in my neighborhood woke up on a dimly moonlit night to see the jacket and trousers of a burglar standing with his back to the bedroom door. The boy was very afraid - but his father had died years earlier so he knew it was all up to him. He grabbed the flashlight under his pillow and sprang from his bed. Yelling as fiercely as he could, he struck the man down.

His mother came running. She pushed open the door and turned on the light to find that he had clobbered his own version of Yeats' "coat upon a coat-hanger."

He was too agitated to go right back to sleep so his mother had him tell her what he thought he had seen, how much it had scared him, and how he felt about it once it was all over.

He fell asleep easily after that.

Nonetheless, not all of our apparitions are mere misperceptions.

We all have been affected by the "signatures" others have left in our lives. We all have what could be called "ghost images" of events from the past. These are the real ghosts of Halloween - and of everyday life.

They may affect us in many ways, sometimes making us internally fearful or outwardly aggressive long after their external reality has passed away.

It is always good to turn the lights on, to see them clearly, and describe them objectively to someone who will hear us. Then we recognize them for what they really are.

And with that the ghosts of the mind lose all their power.

Whether or not they were somehow real, and for whatever reason, Harry's ghosts never returned.

Ours can be put to rest as well.

The best way to do that is through conversations with an effective counselor - or a trusted relative or friend.

     [1] William Butler Yeats, "The Apparitions," in Last Poems
and Plays (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1940).

     [2] Domhnall Mitchell, Emily Dickenson: Monarch of Perception
(Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2000). p. 54.

J. Kingston Cowart

      Want to Read More?
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 JOIN THE CENTER CIRCLE

It's easy. Every Wednesday
for a few minutes between
10:00 and Noon sit down and
turn inward - through prayer,
meditation, self-hypnosis or
any modality you choose -
and send out good thoughts
to everyone else in the circle.

I'll be there. How about you?

J. Kingston Cowart
619.561.9012
Post Office Box 19005
San Diego CA 92159
jkcowart@self-change.com

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