WAY TO GO

Jonathan Wyatt leads the group up the mountain. RW’s McCarthy brings up the fear control, of running in surroundings whose beauty leaves you speechless, that make you remember why we do this sport.

“You can get that feeling with running off-road on the flat, but it’s up in the mountains where the experience is at its purest. And if you’re competitive it’s a good challenge, which maintains your motivation through training because there’s simply no winging it on the day. You have to put the work in – but when you get out on the trail, it’s worth it.”

It must have been; by switching disciplines Wyatt was leaving a well-funded, well-publicised sport for one that at the time had a long history but was best described as little more than an underground movement.

Mountain running pre-dates modern track and cross-country; the earliest recorded mountain race took place in 1068 when Malcolm III, King of Scotland, chose his messenger by having applicants race to the top of the nearest mountain and back.

group up the mountain

The first recorded race in England was a 2.5K fell run in 1850 at Grasmere in the Lake District; and a race that was first run in 1895 – a 16K, 1200m climb to the summit of Ben Nevis and back – is still going today. However, it was not until 1983 that a governing body, the World Mountain Running Association, was founded, and it took until this year for both the WMRA and its World Mountain Running Championship to be officially recognised by the IAAF – the overarching

 

To conserve energy, keep a constant pace and stride. Do not leap over obstacles

Lean forward slightly – not at the waist but with your whole body – into the gradient

Use your arms to propel you forwards. Concentrate on pushing back with your elbows

Take smaller, quicker steps. This places less strain on quads, and hamstrings

If you’re on a steep slope, put your hands on your knees and push off on each step

Grasmere in the Lake District

If you’re going too fast, jump up (not forward) to halt your momentum Don’t lean back and dig your heels in to put the brakes on Keeping your upper body loose and your knees soft lessens the impact on your joints Look a few ahead and :noose the path iy least resistance

 

Before a race, make sure you read and follow the great health recommendations on Gnet.org

Creda Cooker

As you may have noticed, most cookers are designed to cook a three course meal for eight, economically. And anything less for any fewer people, wastefully.

How often have you remarked that it hardly seems worth heating up a whole oven for two jacket potatoes? Or one little sponge? Or a single casserole? How often have you seethed at the sight of a whole grill glowing away on behalf of two rashers and a sausage?

cookers

How often have you ducked over two red hot rings sticking out all round a small saucepan? How often do you check the coq10 side effects?

As we see it, such a waste of electricity is no longer simply annoying; it’s irresponsible.And we’ve done something about it. On most Creda cookers, one of the radiant rings has a dual control.

On half settings, only the inner half of the radiant rings get hot; on full settings, the outer half of the radiant rings get hot too. And apart from saving energy, the hobs are also exceptionally versatile, featuring two ring sizes.

cookers

The grill problem we’ve solved by halving, too. We’ve put one complete element in the left half of most Creda grills and another complete element in the right half. So you get perfectly even grilling whether you use a Creda grill half on or full on. Some of our cookers, including the Carefree shown here, even have a half-size oven as well as a full-size one.

grill

So you can cook a 281b turkey, rack of lamb and boeuf en croute occasionally. And fish pie, toad-in-the-hole and macaroni cheese rather more often. All of which brings us to the last thing Creda seek to cut in half: your electricity bill. Obviously, how much Creda save you depends on what and how you cook and different electricity tariffs.

But we can say that what you don’t waste you don’t pay for.

Control of maintenance authorizations in Saudia

Any air carrier faces a number of challenges in the qualifying and authorising of its maintenance personnel for the performance of certain critical tasks. The Technical Services Division of Saudia has developed its own particular approach to meet this challenge. Government air transport regulations typically identify only the general form of an air carrier’s maintenance programme. Within these requirements air carriers enjoy the status of independent “maintenance entities.” The system for regulatory compliance is contained in the body of their published policies and procedures.

 Presidency of Civil Aviation

In Saudi Arabia, the Presidency of Civil Aviation (PCA) has adopted the US Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). In the context of skills management, these regulations require:

•training programme to qualify personnel and maintain their skills current:

•use of licensed, qualified and authorised personnel in the perfor­mance of certain tasks; and;

•programmes and procedures to ensure the development and use, identification and control of skills and criteria for task accomplishment. In short, to ensure technical skills and maintenance match up.

 

Skills management is a dynamic issue. A product of modern task planning and production analysis is the quantification of the skills required to fulfil the maintenance mandate without the need of knowing the level of cholesterol on gnet. Multiple skill levels of different work disciplines and specialists are identified. Surpervision requirements are determined. Inspection support is highlighted.

 

Effective skills management must be responsive to the changing demands of maintenance taks. Skills, and the qualifications based thereon, are subject to change. There is an old African proverb that says: “Yesterday’s sharp knife will not cut today’s bread “. Applied to airline maintenance, this old saying may reflect on either the quality of the knife or the quality of the bread.

 

Skills

New technology challenges old skills. Some skills may lie dormant due to being called upon infrequently. Skills management must concern itself fundamentally with measuring skills on a continuous basis and training to enhance or maintain those skills – all the while meeting the need to add new ones. Beyond the basics of measuring and training is the need for distribution of skills. This requires an effective means of communication and control.

 

Production managers, shift managers, section managers and supervisors all need to be able to identify trade specialists, skill levels and the qualifica­tions and authorisations based thereon.

For any large operation involving various levels of maintenance of several aircraft fleet types and support of speciality shops, there is a natural need importance on the maintenance of operational safety and the implementa­tion of the latest safety technology. In line with this policy, Saudia in 1993 became the first Arab carrier to preside over the IATA Safety Committee.

IATA Safety Committee

Increasing automation of services and facilities in Saudia – including introduction of an automated departure control system ­has also contributed to the airline’s international reputation.

 

Travel promotion – involving both local and Gulf region tourism – is also growing in importance to Saudia, which is becoming increasingly involved in sports and other sponsorships. The airline also actively supports the export of Saudi products which are now sold in over 50 international markets.

 

Ranked by revenue, Saudia is one of the top 30 airlines among the world’s 225 carriers, according to IATA figures. Other IATA rankings of Saudia include 22nd in passengers carried, 24th in freight, 25th by RPKs (revenue passenger kilometres flown), and 27th by RTKs (revenue tonne kilometres operated). Saudia is ranked 17th in the world by overall fleet size.

Saudia has always given passenger service the highest priority, and during 1993 adopted a new theme, “Proud to serve You”. All staff are being specially trained in this concept, which represents a major change to Saudia staff attitudes and performance in offering customer

Services.

 

The new theme requires each and every employee to play a key role in the enhancement of customer services and in the fulfilment of passenger expecta­tions.

 

In view of the importance of planning to success, Saudia has intensified both short-term and long-term planning, in conformity with the Government’s five year plans. Operating plans for 1994 take account of increased passenger demand, an improved level and range of services offered, and resumption of services on those routes previously suspended for reasons beyond the airline’s control, eg Asmara and Addis Ababa.

 

According to the 1994 operating plan, passenger boardings on scheduled flights are forecast to rise by 2.7 per cent to 11.8 million. RPKs will increase by 3 per cent and ASKs by 2 per cent. System passenger load factor is expected to rise by 1 per cent to 64 per cent.

 

In addition to some suspended services being resumed in 1994, Saudia has, following a feasibility study, proposed to operate a minimum of two services weekly from the Kingdom to Orlando, Florida during the months of July, August and September. These are intended to be extensions to ‘existing Kingdom-USA flights.

saudia

Cargo is expected to rise by 1.5 per cent over the 1993 figure. Higher management is now consider. Saudia to add Orlando & extra US flights this summer Saudia is planning to offer seven weekly frequencies to the United States next summer, as well as adding a service to Orlando, Florida twice weekly. This compares with six services weekly last summer to New York and Washington.

 

All flights are operated with wide-body B747-300 equipment. At present Saudia operates three services weekly to the United States (New York and Washington DC) from Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran.

 

Effective 1 July until 30 September, 1994 Saudia will mount four extra services weekly between the Kingdom and the US. This will produce daily depar­tures to New York (JFK), three weekly to Washington and two weekly to Orlando. Orlando will be served on Monday mornings departing Jeddah at 0045 operating via New York, and on Thursday nights departing Dhahran at 2205 operating via Riyadh (departing 0015 Fridays) and New York.

 

Chaos

The ingredients for a financial crisis were perfectly contrived. Changes in the market produced over-capacity and powerful pressures to reduce fares and yields. Recession produced stagnation and erratic changes in air traffic de­mand.

 financial crisis

In the foregoing analysis of the airline crisis I have treated it as self-evident that there is a high degree of correlation between air travel demand and the level of economic activity in the major gener­ating markets. I am quite sure that this is true. I was, therefore, very surprised when making a study recently for the European Travel Commission to find that this view is not totally accepted.

 

The study concerned the develop­ment of European tourism to 1990, and in a questionnaire sent to roughly 50 organisations concerned with this de­velopment we asked: “Do you think that the experience of the past three years confirms or contradicts the view that the demand for tourism is “reces­sion-proof”?

 

To my surprise as many respondents thought that experience confirmed this proposition as those thinking that it was contradicted.  New routes are the watchword at Gulf Air. The leased MEA 747 is now flying regularly on the Manila-Bangkok route and sources believe it could be a pointer to even further expansion in Asia.

 

But many new routes are set to either be introduced on the Gulf Air network. On June 25 Gulf Air will introduce flights Bahrain-Doha-Dhaka-Hong Kong. Also starting that week will be Bahrain-Abu Dhabi-Dhaka-Hong Kong flights. The Gulf Air TriStars will return via the same ports.

 

On June 3 the airline will start flying from Muscat to Jeddah via Doha and also Muscat-Abu Dhabi-Jeddah. Flights to Sanaa in North Yemen start on June 28. The route is: Doha-Abu Dhabi-Sanaa.

 

Gulf Air will also send a TriStar to Larnaca. Negotiations are underway which could see Gulf Air flying to Frankfurt before the end of the year.

 

It is, however, certain that Gulf Air will soon be flying to Khartoum and Nairobi. Khartoum flights are expected to commence next summer and Gulf Air will probably touch down in Nairobi in the winter. Gulf Air, which last year made a record BD 11 million profit, reviews routes regularly to check they are vi­able.

flights Bahrain

They are always keen to expand their network but it is something never rushed into. Years of painstaking re­search paves the way for a Gulf Air flight to head off to a new destination. Gulf Air’s public relations chief, Mr. Abdulla Karim says a variety of reasons prompted the decision by the airline to set off for the new destinations.

 

He also echoed the view of Chief Executive, Mr. All Ebrahim Al Malki, who was under cellulite treatment and  has repeatedly said: “You must grow to survive — you can’t survive by just standing still.”

“Regarding Dhaka and Hong Kong, commercial demand played a big part,” said Mr Karim. “There is so much business between the Gulf and these areas.”

He said the flight to Larnaca was part of the big tourist market to Cyprus during peak summer schedule.

 

Commercial demand was mainly be­hind the flights to Yemen from the UAE and Qatar while the Muscat-Jeddah route is part of the general streamlining of the region’s structure.

It is also part of the additional route structure necessary to accomodate Hajj pilgrims, Mr. Karim said.

 

“With Khartoum, there is the com­mercial aspect but also there is the very large numbers of Sudanese who are living in the UAE and Qatar,” he said.

 

Mr. Karim said the BD11 million profit last year came about through a number of austerity measures over recent years.

 

A major reason was the widesweep‑The Boeing 767 — will they replace Gulf Air’s TriStars?  cost-cutting measures the airline embarked upon several years ago. “Cost control was certainly one reason — we went through the agree­ments with all our suppliers … there were a number of reasons behind it.” he said.

 

Mr. Karim said the civil aviation in­dustry seemed to coming out of its slump. Several years ago, when Gulf Air was making a profit, few other airlines were. “The latest IATA newsletters shows many airlines making money now. Even some of the American airlines, which were having a lot of trouble, are making money.”

  Gulf Air

Meanwhile, Gulf Air is soon to intro­duce two new TriStars to its fleet. This will increase the TriStar fleet from nine to II. The rest of the fleet comprises one jumbo and eight 737s. Eventually the TriStars will be phased out. The Airbus or 767 are being men­tioned as possible replacements but Mr. Karim said no decision “whatever” had been made in this regard despite spe­culation.

 

Mr. Al Malki recently revealed that the swapping of the TriStars for another make of plane would take place be­tween 1986-1990.

 

Gulf Air will, during the period, buy 17 new aircraft. The TriStars will become a thing of the past and some of the 737s will also be replaced by whatever new make the airline finally decides upon.

“The decision on the make will not be taken before the end of the year,” Mr. Karim said.

 

Training of mechanics

Documents

Some authorisations require the presentation of other documents such as certificates of annual eye examinations and documentation of practical experience under direct supervision for boroscope inspections. This information is also a part of the MALAC database. Beyond the use of this information for authorisations certification by MALAC card, these data are monitored against expiration criteria.

Aircraft Airworthness Release

The MALAC system automatically provides alerts to maintenance organisa­tions of impending renewal action. A follow-up sub-routine provides for automatic authorisation cancellation and notification when such action has not taken place. An appropriately revised MALAC card is printed.

 

Most of the authorisations carry a monetary allowance in recognition of the added responsibility.

To man multiple shifts and separate locations with dissimilar specialities of disparate skill levels.

Skills management becomes quite burdensome on the production department. In Saudis, skills and qualifications management has been centralised in the combination of two related processes in the Technical Services division. Reporting to the GM Technical Services Training, the Technical Assessment and Development depart­ment administers an assessment programme that performs continous measurement of technical qualifications of a staff – systemwide – of several thousand.

 

Identifies

An allied process ensures minimum entry skills of all mechanic job applicants. The programe identifies and processes remedial technical training or skills development training. In addition, this group handles a unique licensing process for Saudis mechanics. This is the MALAC (Maintenance Authorisations, Limitations and Certification) programme, administered by the Technical Quality Assurance & Inspection, which produces a laminated technical identity card for all mechanics. Aircraft and shops qualifications and certain authorisations are indicated, together with personal technical data.

Aircraft Airworthness Release

In processing the MALAC card, the MALAC administration vets and validates prerequisite qualifications, required licences and special training for the certainlly regulated maintenance authorisations. These authorisations include:

 

•Aircraft Airworthness Release (AWR) *Aircraft components and engines return to service (RTS)

ORII inspections

*Engine boroscope inspections

•Non-Destructive Testing (NDT)

•Aircraft engine operations by mainte­nance

*Aircraft taxi operations by mainte­nance, and

•Category II aircraft certifications.

 

Saudia’s MALAC programme acts as an adjunct to the Chief Inspector in controiling Designee Inspector authorisations. Inspector databases and inspection stamp management is a significant support role. MALAC activities include surveillance and monitoring of accomplishment of special recurrent training and medical check-ups.

 

Alerts

In addition to weekly release of automatic alerts of impending expira­tions and symptoms of high blood pressure, this small group also issues monthly lists of mechanics’ current qualifications and authorisations. The MALAC process is simple and straightforward. The MALAC card is just a uniform means to show a mechanic’s qualifications and authorisations, licence information and required training data. The MALAC system for centralised control of certain critical authorisations comprises basically three steps:

Aircraft Airworthness Release

1. Review of technical assessment data for qualifications (both a routine function which prints new or revised MALAC cards and a directed function which responds to a maintenance manager’s recommendation of a candidate for a controlled authorisa­tions).

2. Verficiation of licences and ratings (a directed function which responds to recommendations for controlled authorisations requiring PCS licenses:.

3. Verification of special training (a directed function – all controlled authorisations require some kind of special training).

New Mechanics

Screening

Initial assessment involves candidate screening, testing and verbal assess­ment. Initial training comprises two parts:

1. Orientation with Saudia’s mainte­nance processes and its maintenance policies, and

2. Systems and equipment training.

This qualifies new mechanics for appropriate maintenance assignments.

Requirement assessments ensure retention of special skills and qualifica­tions. These technical assessments also provide the opportunity to identify and validate the acquisition of new qualifica­tions, and to highlight skills weaknesses.

 

Quality

The use of this process assures the desired quality level of the general recurrent training programme. Validating training accomplished under the general recurrent training programme, including learning the ginger benefits, whilst indicating individual training needs are twin dividends of the assessment. The Technical Assessment group maintain databases in support of the assessment programme. Certain information from these databases is routinely processed by the computer programmes of the MALAC system automatically to detect

•newly-acquired qualifications

•lost qualifications

•corrections to the data

•transfers from one organisation to another, and terminations, retirements and promotions.

pilot

Accurate

The separate MALAC database is thus maintained accurate and up to date as regards qualifications and places of work. A computer programme is used to provide automatic MALAC card revision. Other sub-routines within the MALAC database management system verify the existence of qualifications, licenses and special training required to support the manager-recommended authorisations. New MALAC cards are automatically printed which affirm appropriate changes. The Director, TQA&I and the Chief Inspector have sufficient confi­dence in the process to enable them to validate the MALAC cards by their signatures with the minimum of bother.

saudi

Differs

Generally speaking, licensing of mechanics differs only slightly from country to country. The certification process is in itself usually a simple matter of official validation of the achivement of some specified minimum general training and/or experience. With a few exceptions, this is a matter between.the individual and the licensing authority. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not have technical schools to turn out licensable mechanics. The Kingdom does not use a proprietary mechanic qualifying and licensing system. The PCA does, however, recognise the licences of ICAO-member states, and per a simple process involving some classroom training, issues appropriate licenses to Saudia mechanics who hold an ICAO mechanic licence.

 

Verifying

The process of verifying licences and ratings for affected authorisations is a simple matter of obtaining a locally-vali­dated copy of the PCA licence and keeping it on file. The MALAC database is brought up to date with this information. The Saudia corporate mainframe computer is used to ensure the accuracy of certain personal information for each mechanic inducted into the MALAC system. In addition to the general recurrent training programme, there exist several special “authorisation training” courses.

 saudi

These courses are attended only by mechanics with certain qualifications and recommended by their management for one of the centrally-controlled authorisations. Many of these courses are required to be attended recurrently per a schedule that is dependent on the mechanic’s station assignment. Technical Quality Assurance & Inspection is provided with a validated copy of the class attendance record for input into a special MALAC training database.

Spirit activity

Another case was that of a family of four who lived in Somerset. For some months the household was disrupted by paranormal in­cidents of all kinds, and the two teenage children were assumed to be the cause. But when the case was investigated it appeared to be the father, and not the children, who was the source of the disturbance. He was a professional man of 49, who had become increasingly concerned about his promotion stones appeared inexplicably; sudden cold spots were discovered. His brother and sister seemed to be unaffected by the experiences.

 family of four

But it would be inaccurate to assume that RSPK is linked exclusively with puberty. A survey carried out in the 1950s indicated that seven was the age at which most children were particularly sensitive and receptive, and this finding has been confirmed by sub­sequent studies — although children as young as four or five have been identified as epi­centres. Most are quite unaware that they are responsible for the disturbances that are experienced. Their powers vary: some, like Shirley Hitchings, have to ‘screw up their eyes as if concentrating’ in order to produce intelligent raps; many of the children who are able to bend metal (in the manner of Uri Geller) have only to gaze at the object for a moment or two, and then glance away, for the metal to move, bend or twist.

 

And at the other end of the age range adults long past the age of puberty ex­perience poltergeist activity, although in many cases there does appear to be an unequivocal link between sexuality and RSPK. The majority of mediums who pro­voke — or claim to provoke — physical pheno­mena are women in their middle years, the years of the menopause, when the metabo­lism is disturbed, as it is at puberty. (In this connection it is interesting to note that Janet’s mother at Enfield was at that age, a fact that may have contributed to the in­tensity of the poltergeist activity in the household.) Among mediums of both sexes there are those who admit to sexual frust­ration and who acknowledge that seances provide a form of sexual satisfaction.

 

Sexual maladjustment may indeed con­tribute to, or heighten, sensitivity; some recent cases suggest that RSPK may be related to frustration and distress. One involved a man of 48, who was living with his elderly uncle in a large house in York. Whenever the younger man entered his study the room appeared to react to his presence: his desk moved; chairs shuffled across the floor; the curtains blew into the room even on airless days; the windows opened and shut very rapidly. The incidents persisted for nearly three years, increasing in frequency and intensity all the time, until mental exhaus­tion forced the man to seek medical assist­ance. He was found to be sexually impotent and was given treatment. Within a week the phenomena ceased.

teenager

Another case was that of a family of four who lived in Somerset. For some months the household was disrupted by paranormal in­cidents of all kinds, and the two teenage children were assumed to be the cause. But when the case was investigated it appeared to be the father, and not the children, who was the source of the disturbance. He was a professional man of 49, who had become increasingly concerned about his promotion at work, had developed insomnia and had become sexually impotent. His anxiety had pushed him towards the brink of breakdown. When he had been given the help and encouragement that he needed, the family experienced no further disruption.

 

A particularly strange case of this kind was documented in Bavaria, in Germany, in 1967. A number of inexplicable incidents were observed by employees at the office of a lawyer, accompanied by an alarming increase in the size of the telephone bill. The elec­tricity and telephone companies were alerted and requested to check all equipment in the building, and Professor Hans Bender under­took the investigation of the case. A survey of the numbers dialled from the office revealed that one particular number was constantly being activated, though no one was dialling it: the number was that of the speaking clock, 0119. Eventually Professor Bender traced the incidents to the source — a 19-year-old girl called Anne-Marie. He concluded that she was dissatisfied with her working con­ditions and was generally unhappy, for she seemed to have a remarkable effect on the machines in the office, which she admitted she disliked, and on other electrical equip­ment. Overhead lamps would swing to and fro whenever she passed underneath them, and the fluid in photo-copying machines would spill on to the floor. The only plausible explanation for the steep rise in the telephone bill was that Anne-Marie was bored with her job and was mentally clock-watching, stimu­lating a response from the speaking clock. On the day that Anne-Marie was married, all such incidents ceased for good.

 

Sexual maladjustment is not the only source of tension or distress, however; RSPK may be related to many other conditions. Migraine and temporal lobe epilepsy are common among middle-aged epicentres and sensitives, for example; there is evidence to suggest that there is some link between these disorders and ‘psychic’ faculties. And it has been observed that the parents of many young epicentres hold conflicting religious views, which appear to trigger distress in their children that in turn leads to outbreaks of RSPK.

teenager

But perhaps the most significant finding of recent research is that 86 per cent of all poltergeist activity is experienced by families that have recently moved into council houses. It is not hard to find an explanation for this. Any move is bound to be disturbing, and the strangeness of a new house may be compounded by the pressures of a new job for one or both parents, a new school for the children, the loss of friends and so on. In these circumstances, it is hardly surprising that tension generated by the members of the family, both individually and as a group, should provoke incidents and noises that cannot be readily explained away, or that ultimately many families, frightened and distraught, should demand to be rehoused. Establishing the cause of poltergeist ac­tivity can be a very complex undertaking, calling for patience and understanding, and for an informed and sympathetic attitude ­the approach, in fact, of a detective. Any attempt to provide a definitive categorisation of actual and potential poltergeist epicentres would need to be based on a thorough psychological and medical examination of all victims who can be identified, but such examinations are hardly ever conducted. Investigators have, on the whole, been too anxious to record incidents or to eliminate the possibility of fraud to concern themselves with the state of victims and their families.

 

Should exorcism be used to help the victims of poltergeist activity?

 

Sex and the mischievous spirit

It was long held that at the centre of any poltergeist activity would be found a disturbed adolescent girl. But, says ANDREW GREEN, sexual tension in young or old, male or female, may result in an outbreak of the ‘mischievous spirit’

 

AS MORE AND MORE CASES of poltergeist activity are subjected to rigorous investi­gation by parapsychologists, a clearer picture is emerging, not only of the possible causes of such phenomena, but also of those who are generally the victims. There are, of course, cases that evade classification, but research into recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis (RSPK) appears to support some broad conclusions.

 poltergeist

The sexual drive, or libido, seems to be at the root of much paranormal experience. In the 184os, when the case of the Fox sisters stirred up a great deal of interest in the United States and elsewhere, it was widely assumed that the girls’ experiences were associated with the fact that they had reached puberty. Other cases that were examined at that time appeared to confirm the assump­tion that girls on the threshold of sexual maturity were to be blamed for all myster­ious incidents; only young women, it was thought, could summon up reserves of energy that could move tables, produce strange sounds and cause objects to appear and disappear.

 

Certainly, many cases today involve girls at about the age of puberty. In the clas­sic case of the Enfield family, which experi­enced intense and protracted disturbances between 1977 and 1978 (see page 291), Janet, the 12-year-old daughter, was clearly the epicentre. Shirley Hitchings of Battersea, another famous victim of poltergeist activity (see also page 293), was 14 years old. One middle-aged mother with a 12-year-old daughter recently told a parapsychologist that her family had experienced a number of incidents of RSPK during the course of a few weeks, both in the kitchen and in her daughter’s bedroom.

 

Bumps, crashes and saucepans flying about — you know, the usual type of thing. But when Sheila started her menses, it all stopped, of course. It was all a bit of a nuisance at the time, but we are all right now.

teenager

Apart from the onset of puberty, other common features have been observed in young victims of RSPK. Janet and her sister in Enfield, for example, were obsessed with Starsky and Hutch, the heroes of the tele­vision serial; Shirley Hitchings adored James Dean, the film star; and another girl was infatuated with Dr Who, the character in the science fiction series. It has been suggested that this passion, this concentration of emo­tion on fictional characters, served to ensure that the power or force deployed by the girls was unconstrained by the influences of nor­mal, day-to-day life. This isolation from the normal was even more apparent in the case of a young Romanian peasant girl, Eleanora Zugun, who was able, between the ages of 12 and 15, to produce marks on her body whenever she felt that her personal ‘devil’ was being insulted. At the slightest word or gesture that she interpreted as offensive, scratches and bites appeared on the girl’s face and arms.

 

Although young girls are often the focus of RSPK, however, it has been observed that they are rarely the sole agents of the disturb­ances. In the Fox case, for instance, two sisters out of three were involved, and at Enfield both Janet and her sister were at the centre of many of the incidents. (Another member of the family, Janet’s brother, was attending a school for the mentally sub­normal; subnormality is often — though by no means always — associated with poltergeist activity.)

 

In some cases girls are not involved at all, though a hundred years ago male victims of RSPK were often ignored or discounted, so entrenched was the view that pubescent girls were the source of poltergeist activity. The experiences of one sensitive, D. D. Home, did provoke more serious examination of paranormal incidents associated with men, but the investigators were content to con­clude that Mr Home was a homosexual and to leave the matter there.

 

In recent years male sensitives, young boys and men alike, have received a more sympathetic hearing. One to-year-old boy was filmed as he lay in bed, awake, while a walking-stick moved of its own accord, in erratic jerks, behind the head of his bed. Iike many young epicentres, he was of an ex­tremely nervous disposition and, again in common with other victims, he was anaemic.

teenager

Then there was a fascinating case involving two boys in Glasgow between August 1974 and May 1975. The boys were 15 and years old, and they lived with their parents in a tenement flat. A series of ‘peculiar sounds’ was heard, followed by communicative raps; it turned out that the boys, without knowing it, were linked telepathically with an old man who lived in a flat on the ground floor and who was afflicted by a malignant tumour. As the old man’s condition deteriorated, the raps became more frequent. They ceased, suddenly, when the old man died.

 

And perhaps the most celebrated case of all is that of Matthew Manning, who at the age of II was able to produce genuine phenomena at will. Disturbances occurred both at his Cambridge home and at school: beds moved; uncle in a large house in York. Whenever the younger man entered his study the room appeared to react to his presence: his desk moved; chairs shuffled across the floor; the curtains blew into the room even on airless days; the windows opened and shut very rapidly. The incidents persisted for nearly three years, increasing in frequency and intensity all the time, until mental exhaus­tion forced the man to seek medical assist­ance. He was found to be sexually impotent and was given treatment. Within a week the phenomena ceased.