To say I was obsessed by the paranormal in my younger years would be an understatement. From the age of 11 till I was around 18 years old, I must have read hundreds of books on the subject.
From the UFOs of Bonnyrigg to Bigfoot in the north-western United States, there was no subject that I was not well versed in. Then life happened: new job, new girlfriend, new hobbies, new friends. My obsession with the reported UFO crash on the Isle of Jura in 1996 or the strange case of Sigmund Adamski in the 1980s could not have been further from my mind.
Returning to the paranormal
It wasn’t long after the death of my mother in 2008 when I rekindled my interest in the paranormal.
I found myself joining a group of intrepid ghost hunters in a well-known Glasgow bar discussing many of Glasgow’s haunted locations, when the subject of an investigation came up.
A member of staff at the famous Glasgow Tron Theatre had contacted the group and asked them to investigate something that was going bump in the night.
I had never taken part in a real paranormal investigation before and I was pensive. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to face down ghosts that weren’t in the pages of the dusty books on my bookshelf at home.
It was 19 December 2008 and, as the last of the theatregoers filtered out of the building, the theatre gradually fell quiet and still.
Our psychic for the evening was a woman called Sadie, a short woman with short blond hair who wore a black bomber leather jacket. She wanted to lead the group in a protection prayer to keep us safe from any evil spirits that may attack us should they take a disliking to our presence.
As sceptical as I was of this practice, I was secretly glad of it. The lights were turned off and it was time for us to begin our investigation.
I sat near the back of the theatre, alone and in the dark I was drawn to the area where the band would sit.
A stone from the dark
I could sense a presence. I am not a psychic to my knowledge and I barely believe in the ability, so I would never claim to “sense” anything. However, the only way I can describe the sensation is that I sensed a presence. “An overactive imagination,” I told myself.
I moved from the back of the theatre to the front row facing the stage. After a few moments the snare drum vibrated and, with a ping, something landed at my feet in the dark. I turned my torch on to search the floor and at my feet lay a small stone.
An EVP response
At 2am, I am on the stage with the group and the psychic. The psychic produces a tape recorder and suggests we try a simple EVP experiment where we ask a question to the ghostly presence that has joined us on stage to see if we can get a response.
I patiently wait my turn and, as the tape recorder comes to me, there is only one question I want to ask. “Was it you who threw the stone?” Through the dark, on that stage in a Glasgow theatre on a cold December morning, a man’s gruff voice cried out: “Correct”.
MICHAEL McCANN is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker and screenwriter from Glasgow, Scotland. He is also a co-organiser of The Scottish UFO and Paranormal Conference and host of the Weirder Things Podcast.
Read more: Discover the ghosts of Glasgow’s Tron Theatre.
