Post by Catherine Fearnley on Aug 29, 2004 11:19:37 GMT -5
The Interview
The Weekly Post
Friday 28th July 2000
Still haunted by the Highgate Vampire
The legendary Highgate Cemetery Vampire seems to have disappeared just as mysteriously as it used to vanish from the sight of petrified onlookers 30 years ago. But the fable of the blood-drinking corpse that rose nightly from its grave to roam the tombs of North London lives on, writes Anna Regeniter.
It all started when local psychic investigator and president of the British Psychic and Occult Society, David Farrant, decided to visit the cemetery one night after hearing rumours about the sighting of a ghostly figure on the cemetery grounds.
His own encounter with the ‘entity’, as he cautiously calls it, is still vivid in his mind: “The only way that I can describe it is that it looked so real that at first I thought it was real. I saw this eight feet tall figure and two points of red light which I took to be his eyes, and at first I thought it was just somebody messing about frightening people, because by that time there had been a lot of press coverage on the sightings. But then, although it was a bitterly cold night, I felt the temperature drop. It was as if you opened the fridge door and put your hands into the ice box”.
The apparition vanished after some seconds leaving a sense of ‘intense evil’. Ever since, Mr Farrant has desperately tried to find out more about what he saw that night and his investigations have even landed him in prison. He was sentenced to over two years imprisionment for disturbing graves and sending voodoo dolls to police officers. The judge presiding over the case told him that he was lucky to receive so ‘slight’ a sentence and that the voodoo dolls could have been taken as proof of attempted manslaughter.
With his latest book, The Vampyre Syndrome, Farrant is trying to set the record straight following the press’ incessant portrayals of him as a shady practitioner of black magic. “I found that so much nonsense had been written about the Highgate Vampire by the press and other authors that whereas my previous book, Behind The Highgate Vampire, gives an objective, factual account of the events, my new book is a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the other people involved in the case.”<br>Meanwhile, the research continues. Mr Farrant’s investigations have convinced him that there are different types of apparitions and only in very few cases do they try to convey messages to humans, or indeed, have the type of intelligence necessary to do so.
Mr Farrant believes this was the case with the Highgate Vampire: “I don’t yet know what these messages are, but it is part of my life’s work to find out.”<br>Farrant has often made it clear that he does not believe in the Hammer Horror type of vampire. He does believe, however, that stories such as Dracula are based on the so-called incubi and succubi which have been reported for many centuries: People suddenly find themselves awakened at night, completely paralysed and pressed down by some demonic force. Both sex and blood-sucking appear to be an important factor - all the elements of your usual vampire tale.
Farrant says he does not care whether people accept his theories or not: “Most people cannot understand what they fear, and what they fear they automatically condemn. If you mention the word ‘occult’ people associate it straight away with black magic but I use the word in the sense of ‘hidden’ or ‘unknown’. I’ve certainly never had anything to do with the black side of it. It’s an extremely dangerous thing to mess around with and I wouldn’t want anyone to do it.”<br>So is there any chance of the Highgate Vampire reappearing? “Psychic activity can suddenly fade out.” Farrant explaines. “ But then certain things like extensive renovation work to buildings can activate it again and unleash dormant energies.”<br>So think twice before you pull down that wall in your house - you never know what might lie hidden beneath the old stones!
The Weekly Post
Friday 28th July 2000
Still haunted by the Highgate Vampire
The legendary Highgate Cemetery Vampire seems to have disappeared just as mysteriously as it used to vanish from the sight of petrified onlookers 30 years ago. But the fable of the blood-drinking corpse that rose nightly from its grave to roam the tombs of North London lives on, writes Anna Regeniter.
It all started when local psychic investigator and president of the British Psychic and Occult Society, David Farrant, decided to visit the cemetery one night after hearing rumours about the sighting of a ghostly figure on the cemetery grounds.
His own encounter with the ‘entity’, as he cautiously calls it, is still vivid in his mind: “The only way that I can describe it is that it looked so real that at first I thought it was real. I saw this eight feet tall figure and two points of red light which I took to be his eyes, and at first I thought it was just somebody messing about frightening people, because by that time there had been a lot of press coverage on the sightings. But then, although it was a bitterly cold night, I felt the temperature drop. It was as if you opened the fridge door and put your hands into the ice box”.
The apparition vanished after some seconds leaving a sense of ‘intense evil’. Ever since, Mr Farrant has desperately tried to find out more about what he saw that night and his investigations have even landed him in prison. He was sentenced to over two years imprisionment for disturbing graves and sending voodoo dolls to police officers. The judge presiding over the case told him that he was lucky to receive so ‘slight’ a sentence and that the voodoo dolls could have been taken as proof of attempted manslaughter.
With his latest book, The Vampyre Syndrome, Farrant is trying to set the record straight following the press’ incessant portrayals of him as a shady practitioner of black magic. “I found that so much nonsense had been written about the Highgate Vampire by the press and other authors that whereas my previous book, Behind The Highgate Vampire, gives an objective, factual account of the events, my new book is a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the other people involved in the case.”<br>Meanwhile, the research continues. Mr Farrant’s investigations have convinced him that there are different types of apparitions and only in very few cases do they try to convey messages to humans, or indeed, have the type of intelligence necessary to do so.
Mr Farrant believes this was the case with the Highgate Vampire: “I don’t yet know what these messages are, but it is part of my life’s work to find out.”<br>Farrant has often made it clear that he does not believe in the Hammer Horror type of vampire. He does believe, however, that stories such as Dracula are based on the so-called incubi and succubi which have been reported for many centuries: People suddenly find themselves awakened at night, completely paralysed and pressed down by some demonic force. Both sex and blood-sucking appear to be an important factor - all the elements of your usual vampire tale.
Farrant says he does not care whether people accept his theories or not: “Most people cannot understand what they fear, and what they fear they automatically condemn. If you mention the word ‘occult’ people associate it straight away with black magic but I use the word in the sense of ‘hidden’ or ‘unknown’. I’ve certainly never had anything to do with the black side of it. It’s an extremely dangerous thing to mess around with and I wouldn’t want anyone to do it.”<br>So is there any chance of the Highgate Vampire reappearing? “Psychic activity can suddenly fade out.” Farrant explaines. “ But then certain things like extensive renovation work to buildings can activate it again and unleash dormant energies.”<br>So think twice before you pull down that wall in your house - you never know what might lie hidden beneath the old stones!