When ghostly footsteps approach!

It is 2021 and ASSAP will be 40 years old this year. As one of the founders, I can’t believe it is so long since we started this organization. I am still fascinated by anomalous phenomena. It is the things that don’t quite fit that point us towards a better understanding of how the universe really works. This year we are reviving the Michael Bentine Shield award.

How would you feel if you heard footsteps approaching you even though you knew for a fact there was no one else in the building with you? My acquaintance (MA) who gets microsleep with REM experiences was reading in silence when just such an event occurred. MA looked up, feeling somewhat disconcerted, but there was no one there! MA also felt the odd feeling that marks the end of a MWR, which is what the experience clearly was.

This was a second example of a ‘noise MWR’ manifesting as a sound effect, rather then the usual human voices. Footsteps with no apparent cause are, of course, quite a common effect in hauntings. The footsteps appeared to move in space, approaching MA. This is different to the MWR voices which don’t appear to come from any particular direction in space. It may be a psychological illusion since we expect footsteps to move. Whatever the cause it was very convincing. Anyone who gets MWRs but is unaware of their natural cause might certainly conclude it was a ghost. Once again MA  was reading when the effect occurred.