Danny Robins Meets The Ghost Of "Nicole" That Followed A British Family Home From A Holiday In France
Photo: © Jenny Mavimiro
In a departure from his usual format, Danny Robins, the host of the paranormal podcast 'Uncanny,' confronts a current haunting in the final episode of the second season. In the episode entitled 'That Ghost That Followed Us Home,' which is available on BBC Sounds now, Danny speaks to a family who believe they're cohabitating with a spectral tenant in their typical semi-detached house near Gatwick Airport.
The chilling tale is told by Carly, who lives in the town of Horley, West Sussex, in a street lined with modern houses. A teaching assistant at a local school following a stint at Gatwick Airport, Carly resides with her husband Simon and their three children. Their haunting experience started at a seemingly innocuous moment — their wedding in France, back in 2016.
The couple tied the knot amidst close family and friends in their preferred holiday destination. However, the rural tranquility soon gave way to an inexplicable series of events. Carly's daughter Isabelle and nephew Harry spotted a little girl with a pink cardigan and long brown hair, persistently lingering around an outbuilding across a stream from their rental house.
Despite numerous sightings by the children, none of the adults could ever spot the mysterious girl, adding to the growing sense of unease. The isolation of the location added to their discomfort. The culmination of the peculiar incidents was the inexplicable opening of every door, window, wardrobe, and drawer in their rented house during their last night in France — an event the family insists couldn't have been the handiwork of any wedding guest.
The unsettling weirdness of France followed Carly and Simon back to the UK, manifesting as a ghostly apparition of the girl in the pink cardigan in their Horley home. The entire family began sensing a presence in the house, leading to the entity being christened 'Nicole,' a nod to its French origins. Nicole, they noted, seemed to exhibit a personality, particularly a dislike for disturbances.
The mystery of Nicole's existence remained confined to the family until two builders, hired for a house extension, noticed inexplicable noises and dust-ridden, childlike footprints in the kitchen during their lunch break. Another startling discovery was the apparent imprint of skeletal feet on a barstool, which, although not proof of a ghost, definitely pointed to something uncanny.
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Corroborating evidence came from the neighbour's daughter, Ellie, who claimed to have seen a little girl standing beside Simon when he was unloading shopping from the boot of the car. Ellie's description of the girl’s clothing – a pinkish-red cardigan - matched that of the spectral girl seen in France, fuelling speculations that Nicole indeed had followed the family home.
Throughout the conversation with Danny, Carly expressed her belief that Nicole chose to follow them from France, drawn by their family unit. She admitted, despite the odd occurrences, she didn't wish for Nicole to depart, indicating a strange co-existence that they've come to accept.
The interview ended when a sudden loud, unexplained crash echoed in the background, leaving both Carly and Danny astounded. Could it be Nicole making her presence known to the podcast listeners?
What Danny's Experts Think
Danny's experts, Professor Chris French and Azania Patel, present differing views on the reported haunting in Carly and Simon's home.
Professor French's explanations are rooted in psychology, attributing many of the phenomena to well-documented cognitive processes. He suggests that the ghostly experiences in the modern semi in Horley reflect the psychological states of the people living there, rather than a spectral presence.
For example, the screams heard through the baby monitor and from the toilet may have been the result of the sister-in-law's fear, inducing a contagious panic among the rest of the family. Regarding the appearance of the little girl in the UK, he postulates that it could be a hallucination driven by the previous sighting in France, underlining the influence of prior beliefs and expectations on our perceptions.
The seemingly supernatural photograph of the stool in the kitchen might be a case of pareidolia, where the mind perceives a familiar pattern where none exists. In this instance, what appears as ghostly hands or feet might just be random noise that our brains interpret as meaningful images.
Azania Patel, on the other hand, leans more towards paranormal explanations. She suggests that the sighting of the little girl in France could indeed be a ghost, pointing out that children and animals are often more receptive to such phenomena. The ensuing chaotic events in the home, such as the bedrooms being ransacked, she identifies as classic poltergeist activity.
The repetition of the little girl's appearance, this time in the UK, she finds intriguing. The idea that the ghost is not tied to a specific location but rather follows the family, counters the usual 'stone tape theory' of ghostly apparitions. The theory postulates that buildings can store traumatic or emotional energy, which can then replay as ghostly incidents.
Patel also considers the photograph of the stool more seriously, emphasising the credibility of the source and the corroborating accounts of the terrified builders. To her, the corroborating evidence from Ellie, the neighbour, serves as strong supporting evidence of the haunting, despite its contradiction to Professor French's Occam's razor principle, which advocates for the simplest explanation.
In this case, the experts provide a balanced view, representing both psychological and paranormal interpretations of the events. Their differing perspectives reflect the ongoing debate in the wider field between skeptics and believers.
You can listen to all 12 episodes of 'Uncanny' in the new season, as well as all of season one on BBC Sounds now.
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