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OCTOBER 1978, NEWPORT, ESSEX, U-K., THREE WOMEN:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

Apparently, Paul Devereux in his 2001 book "Haunted Land" reported that in Newport, Essex, U-K., on October 1978, at 09:00 p.m., three women had decided to take a shortcut down a darkened alley to Church Street.

As they neared a bend in the alley, they became aware of someone walking toward them dressed as a "cavalier". This person "drifted" toward them. They could not see its features as he was silhouetted against the light in a nearby church entrance, but he wore a large hat with a plume, and a cape.

As he neared the women, they had an "overwhelming need" to press themselves against the wall until he had passed. When they reached the end of the alley, the women looked back and the figure had "vanished."

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Newport, Essex, England, on October 1978, at 2100, three women had decided to take a shortcut down a darkened alley to Church Street as the neared a bend in the alley they became aware of someone walking toward them dressed as a "cavalier", the figure "drifted" toward them. They could not see its features as he was silhouetted against the light in a nearby church entrance, but he wore a large hat with a plume, and a cape (full attire for a cavalier.) As the figured neared them they had an overwhelming need to press themselves against the wall until it had passed. When they reached the end of the alley the witnesses looked back but the figure had vanished.

Albert Rosales indicates that the source is "Paul Deveraux, Haunted Land."

Points to consider:

Paul Devereux - not Deveraux - , born 1945, is an author, researcher, lecturer, broadcaster, artist and photographer in the Cotswolds, U-K.

He deals with archaeological themes and ancient lifeways, "ecopsychology", "ley lines", "geomancy", unusual geophysical phenomena, "consciousness studies". He has written or co-written about 25 books since 1979.

He claims he saw a UFO and then started to research paranormal phenomena. He follows the ideas of controversial Canadian academic Michael Persinger who believes sightings of UFOs, ghost etc., when they have no commonplace explanations, are caused by EM waves of seismic origin. EM waves are supposed to interact with people's brains and make them see UFOs and other paranormal phenomena that are actually just illusions.

In his book "Haunted Land", Devereux claims unresolved UFO sightings, ghosts appearances, and many other extraordinary sightings, are caused by "earthlights", clouds of plasma charged by strong electromagnetic fields occurring in areas of seismic activity which he believes "ley lines" are.

Unfortunately, the thesis does not work for most unresolved UFO sightings, "earthlights" EM fields or any EM field were never a proven cause of visions to anyone, and unfortunately too, the cases he reports are mostly not properly documented or investigated, only anecdotal, often anonymous, with no possibility of investigation. His explanation, though it appears "scientific" to some UFO-skeptics, isn't really, and gets blurred as it is mixed with even less academic notions such as belief that ancient sacred sites are places with physics anomalies, that there are "energies", healing powers, Gaia, etc.

When we look at the case here, of course a naive reader would marvel at the apparition of such a cavalier, looking as if it escaped in time etc.

But the more common fact is that sometimes, people dress up in ancient manner for some reason, such as some historical reconstitution event of folklore celebration. So, what is so unusual in the story?

Nothing!

Newport is a city with medieval roots. People there would possibly dress up in ancien manner occasionally.

Of course the old ladies had "an overwhelming need to press themselves against the wall until it had passed". Would wouldn't? Who would let himself or herself hit by a stranger in unusual clothing?

The figure seemed to "drift". But if it was someone wearing some sort of tunic or long gown - a cape is mentionned - the feet would not be well visible and would give just that impression. And we are also told that the conditions of visibility weren't good!

The "figure" had vanished when the ladies looked back. It seems strange, but is it? When did they look back, immediately or minutes later? Did it actually "vanish" or was it just out totally normally out of sight? We do not know. When one looks back and doesn't see anymore someone they saw upfront earlier, it does not necessarily prove this someone was an illusion caused by EM waves, or actually disappeared from the face of the Earth... We are actually told that there was a bend in the alley they were walking, and that it had vanished when they had reached the end of the alley!

Lastly, if 3 people reported the same event, same description, then illusions because of EM wave disturbing the brains do not seem quite likely as there is no reason that the 3 illusions would be identical.

Above: Not ghosts or UFOnauts, not illusions caused by EM fields, just ordinary U-K citizens dressed up for medieval historical events.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [---] * "Haunted Land: Investigations into Ancient Mysteries and Modern Day Phenomena", book by Paul Devereux, Piatkus publishers, U-K., 2001.
• [ar1] * "1978 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2007, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1978.shtml

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This page was last updated on May 7, 2012