Yorkshire's Ghosts, Exposed!

Across Yorkshire, there has been a rise in people reporting "paranormal activity" in their homes, and around the streets.

Have people suddenly become more perceptive to the paranormal world over the last 20 or so years?

Are paranormal events becoming a popular pastime among social media fans? With the rise in reports a trend in paranormal and ghost hunting groups on Facebook and Youtube have sprung up, with some boasting thousands of members.

Many of these apparent paranormal events are taking place in locations without much history behind them, whereas others in historical locations have been reported about for many years.

Most hauntings that we hear about are from relatively normal people who have probably never touched a drug in their lives, yet can we believe the stories told?

The way that people tell their stories of ghosts is usually full of complete belief in what they heard or saw, they are usually so convinced of it that they are genuinely scared and often intrigued as to the origins of the "ghost" occupying their home.

What if I were to tell you that there may be a completely logical, yet worrying explanation, as to why we have had a rise in reported activity?

Perhaps all the acid and other drugs going around in the 90s is now having an adverse effect on those who indulged back in the day, as it is known that heavy dosages have been known to return to users of acid many years later (such as the clinical trials of US soldiers serving during the Vietnam war).

This is of course quite unlikely, as not everyone would have been taking drugs, the actual reason is a little more complicated.

Yorkshire was once the hub of the countries coal mining activity, providing millions of tons of black gold across the UK.

Miles of tunnels from these collieries remain underneath many of Yorkshire's towns, villages and Cities, although these mines have not been used in years since their closure in the 1980s many have collapsed, and filled with water from underground rivers and springs.

So what does this have to do with ghosts? I hear you ask.

It is well known that coal mines were prone to containing natural gasses, birds were used to detect these in the early days of large scale underground mining, but what happens to these gasses when a tunnel floods?

Several types of gas are found beneath the ground especially in coal mines, carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), and (H2S).

When a mine tunnel fills with water the gasses are pushed upwards, once they reach the ceiling of the tunnel there is nowhere left for them to seep other than through the rock and soil to the surface.

This can take years to happen and if the gas is released in an open field it will disperse safely into the air, however if it seeps out into the foundations of a building it can affect the occupants.

In 2003 the Guardian.com website wrote a report about the small Derbyshire village of Arkwright, nothing remains of the village now, other than a small plaque on a brick pillar in one corner of an overgrown field.

This village was abandoned in 1995 and nearby a large chimney is burning off large amounts of Methane, which leaked from mines below the village.

The full account can be read here.

While I was researching the affects of the above mentioned gasses. I came across this article on the New Scientist website which states that scientists now believe near death experiences can be attributed to CO2 in your blood.

The Telegraph also reported on this connection in 2010 their article can be found here.

The effects of CO2 range from respiratory, cardiovascular, nerve damage and asphyxiation. Similar effects can be found from exposure to the other gasses mentioned, including hallucinations as suggest in the NBC News in 2009, these may also be the cause of experiencing paranormal activity.

It is more than possible that gasses leaking from disused mines are to blame for paranormal activity, however we must remain open minded as no one really knows if there is life after death, or what happens when a person passes away.

It is comforting to believe that our loved ones, who we have lost, are somewhere looking over us, it brings people peace of mind thinking their dear uncle George is still sitting in his favorite chair smoking his pipe long after he left this world.

So perhaps experiencing the paranormal is as much about our hopes and imaginations, as it could be associated with a number of medical conditions or exposure to poisons or gasses in the air.

Whatever the reason there are teams out there willing to help, and I am not referring to the infamous Ghost Busters, there are services available from dedicated ghost hunting teams, some of these work on the basis that they are all believers in the existence of the paranormal where as there are others who are more skeptical and go into a hunt with an open mind that there may well be a logical explanation.