English Incense and Incensed


For a few years I lived in East Anglia, a part of England renowned 
for the large number of very beautiful old churches. 

Myself and a girl friend at that time used to visit these wonderful 
monuments, enjoying the great sense of age within. During our many 
visits we have experienced two phenomena which were, and still are, 
totally inexplicable. Before going further I'd like to say that I'm 
a research scientist, and not prone to fancy. But I deal with facts 
in my line of work, and that's what follows. 

    The first was just plain odd.

We had spent a winter's day walking around a Norman castle in Castle 
Rising, Norfolk. The castle itself was impressive, and beside it was 
the remains of a church which predated the fortress by only a decade 
or two. 

We walked around the foundations of the church; no walls were more 
than a few feet high, and we were just leaving the doorway when we 
both smelt the strong smell of incense. It was powerful, and despite 
the stiff winter breeze it was very noticeable. We walked a few feet 
on - the scent had gone. We returned to the doorway, and again there 
was no smell. There were no other people within sight, and I certainly 
know of no perfume or other scent which mimics the smell of incense. 

The second event was very disturbing
- this one screwed us up for many days. 

We were driving back to Norfolk from the south coast, passing through
the very picturesque county of Suffolk. It was January, cold and gray
(God bless England...), and we'd decided to get off the main motorway 
to see some places we'd otherwise have bypassed.

We found a small Suffolk village and tracked down the church from its 
tower. It was not too impressive; 15th Century I'd guess. The door was 
unlocked, and we went inside. Normally we'd rush around investigating 
wall paintings, rood screens and such like. In this church we were 
silent. I remember seeing a thermometer on the wall, and thinking how 
cold the place was, even compared to the world outside. 

We didn't say a word to each other the whole time, everything that we 
experienced was independent. We both felt that we were not alone, and 
above all we were not welcome. We continued to explore half-heatedly, 
but we were both experiencing a very discomforting feeling - perhaps 
anger or intrusion. 

We noticed a portion of the pews at the tower end of the church which 
were partitioned off with heavy wooden slats to the ceiling, a row of 
thick old glass windows allowing the occupants to see the service. We 
have never seen this in any other church, and it warranted some 
exploration, so we walked down the nave towards the tower, finding that 
a red curtain had been pulled across the entrance to this walled off 
partition. My girlfriend pulled the curtain back to reveal a number of 
pews. 

She turned to me and said 'We have to leave'. I immediately agreed and 
we both fled (no other word for it). Outside she told me that when 
she'd pulled the curtain back she'd heard a voice demanding that we 
leave; I heard nothing but her insistence to go was no surprise to me. 

We both know we touched something really nasty in that place. In 
retrospect (possibly the most unreliable sense we all have) we think 
it was a human spirit, very angry and possessive and full of enmity. 
We both felt violated by that spirit, and were amazed that it should 
persist in a house of God. We wrote to the relevant Archdiocese, but 
the responses were cursory and not particularly enlightening. 

And there you have it...