U.K. Experiences Most Ghost Sightings in 25 Years!

As a person who investigates the paranormal and lives in the United States, I can only imagine the plethora of ghosts and hauntings occurring in Europe and the U.K. Countries as old as written history and older must have ghosts upon ghosts upon ghosts but I was shocked when I read a recent story published in the Telegraph. According to the story, there have been over 1,000 reports of "demonic activity" throughout the U.K. with the highest incidence of reports coming from Yorkshire.
We have all heard tales of phantom Roman soldiers wandering around parts of Britan along old Roman roads and phantom Highwaymen who still seem to be acting out their nefarious deeds but what has been going on to make activity go on the rise? The answer may not be unique to the U.K. as reports around the globe of ghosts and haunting phenomena seem to be on the rise. Could this increased activity have anything to do with the approach of 2012? Are we on the brink of a thinning of the Vail between the living and those who have made the transition between this life and the next?
I am always taken back to a conversation I had some time ago with a Catholic priest who I had given some EVP's to for his consideration and comments. When I asked him what he thought was going on, his reply stunned me. He said, "The world of spirit is closer to us than any of us could ever imagine or is comfortable thinking about." There is a lot to that statement and if we delve deeper, one of the theories I have always espoused is that the world beyond this physical reality in which we live is the center of our existence at this time but is surrounded by infinite planes of existence which allow interaction to those who know how to bridge the dimensions between.
Perhaps those boundaries, those invisible borders between dimensions or realities are thinning and the increase in reports of the living having more and more encounters with those who have "given up the ghost" are increasing for that very reason. Could 2012 not be the apocalyptic nightmare that some have suggested but a global awakening of consciousness that will break down the barriers between our own physical reality and other realities that coexist around our own? The question does give one cause for excitement and some pause at the implications.
In the U.K., the study conducted by Lionel Fanthorpe found that despite progress of technology and the speedy pace at which life can move, people all over the U.K. still have very real encounters and perceptions about the paranormal. There are specific stories of recent encounters that mirror stories told ages ago and yet we supposedly live in a time when science had dispelled these notions as fantasy and superstition.
For example, ghosts, werewolves, demons and even strange water creatures have always been woven into the folklore and oral traditions of many cultures and yet all of these have recently been reported in the U.K. by people across social and economic stratus. There are the reports of the infamous "Hell Hounds" roaming dark country roads in encounters with people who knew nothing of these stories or who put no stock in them. One such shadowy beast collided with a car near Northallerton. Devonshire has had no less than 57 reports of demonic entities with "devil like qualities". On Dartmoor, the gruesome specter of a man who killed himself has been seen and it is believed to be tragedy for anyone who encounters this awful apparition who is described to be, "hideously skeletal and wearing the tattered remnants of a grey robe."
The Black Shuck, a huge dog black in color with blazing red eyes, has reportedly been seen in the forest around Chapmanslade and is reported to bring death to anyone who encounters it. In Inverness, there are no fewer than 39 ghostly water spirits that have been reported. These apparitions lure people to the water where they then drown. This drew my attention the most being of Scottish ancestry myself (a Knox of the MacFarlane clan) and so I have heard tales of Kelpies and other water spirits and although I have done some research into similar reports, they were of a earlier time than the reports coming in now.
In the end, with the increased populations across the globe, it seems only natural that reports of encounters with unusual creatures of entities would naturally increase as less and less uncharted areas exist. There seems to be something, some force or other stimulus, that is causing an increase in such reports at a time and place where science should have all but eliminated these entities, creatures and demons from our minds and our world. Our minds can dismiss things away as tricks of light or sound or the mind to make us feel more comfortable with something we encounter that does not fit our neatly packaged world view. In the end, how we feel after these encounters and how they affect us is what matters and you can't ignore the bogeyman under the bed when he finally comes out and reaches for you. There are more things in Heaven and Earth Horatio then are dreamt of in your science!