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The first speaker of the day was Parasearch member and ASSAP Investigator Andrew Homer who gave a PowerPoint presentation of some of the investigations Parasearch has undertaken in the last few years. Andrew regaled the audience with accounts of the Wem ghost photograph and the Belgrave Hall Museum 'ghost' video, before moving on to present a series of audio and video recordings obtained on Parasearch investigations. It was all there - phantom footsteps, eerie bell chimes, ghostly lights and 'extra' voices on tape.

Alan Murdie, Chairman of The Ghost Club and council member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), examined reports of ghosts from Britain and abroad. After giving the audience a rare chance to see a slide of the original 'Brown Lady' of Raynham Hall ghost photograph, Alan moved on to examine some less well known ghostly reports he had uncovered from his travels in Romania and Columbia. The audience were delighted by stories of Romanian spirits dictating architectural plans from beyond the grave, to stories about the Colombian 'Beach of the Dead'. What Alan has found is that all these reports from different parts of the world share common elements.

Jeremy Harte is a folklorist, social historian and a museum curator who is interested in the social history and folklore of ghosts. Jeremy examined how ghosts have been perceived over the centuries, with particular reference to the periods 1650-1850. The audience heard reports of headless ghosts, monks, nuns and Roman soldiers and how people only started to see 'historical' ghosts after the eighteenth century. Due to a combination of factors, including the Reformation and the increase in public education, people became more aware of history. This may explain why Elizabethans did not see Roman ghosts only ghosts in Elizabethan dress. All this raises some interesting questions for modern day ghost research.

After lunch and a chance to walk round an increasingly sunny historic Worcester, the audience returned for the afternoon session. Guy Lyon Playfair has been investigating reports of poltergeists for nearly 30 years, both in this country and abroad. The author of many books on the paranormal, he is perhaps most well know as the author of 'This House is Haunted', an account of the Enfield poltergeist. Once again, the audience were treated to rare audio recordings made during the Enfield case, including the sound of heavy objects being thrown and the by now famous poltergeist 'voice'. After discussing other, less well known poltergeists cases from Brazil and Poland, Guy presented a series of slides illustrating poltergeist activity, including movement of heavy objects, scratches on witnesses and spontaneous fires. Guy finished off by showing the audience a mechanic's spanner bent by Uri Geller. This was compared to a spanner bent using mechanical equipment under laboratory conditions, where several tonnes of pressure was needed to achieve the same result.

The last speaker of the day was Paul Devereux, author and researcher of over 20 books on earth mysteries, UFOs and altered states of consciousness. Paul presented a convincing argument for straight archaic features in the landscape such as cursuses, stone rows, coffin roads and fairy paths being associated with the perceived journey of spirits through the land. Through Paul's research for his recent book 'Haunted Land', he came across modern day reports of 'spirit lights' and black dogs being seen along long established fairy paths/coffin roads, as well as ghost sightings along ancient stretches of road. All of this research has lead Paul to consider ghosts to be a result of human consciousness interacting with the landscape.