tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post5347778562086418218..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: A Tribute To Guy PlayfairRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-75967624749217861472020-08-03T19:20:56.417-04:002020-08-03T19:20:56.417-04:00Hi Anthony,
I don't remember having come acro...Hi Anthony,<br /><br />I don't remember having come across any information about how Playfair made a living during the initial investigation of the Enfield case. However, he mentions (on page 23 in his book on Enfield) that, in early September of 1977, he had just submitted to his publisher the manuscript of a book he'd written (The Cycles Of Heaven, which you referred to). In the preface to the last edition of his Enfield book, he mentions that "I neither sought or received any financial help from anybody during the two years spent researching and writing this book" (xi). The term "financial help" is too ambiguous to rule out his having had some source of income during that timeframe. But it could be that he'd had enough money saved up beforehand or gotten enough from The Cycles Of Heaven to get him through the Enfield years.<br /><br />Near the end of the preface to This House Is Haunted, he refers to how the final edition of the book has "the original text (with minor alterations)" (xi). The book is an early report from a major witness, so there's a lot of merit to retaining the original text. I suspect he kept the spelling and grammatical mistakes in the book either to keep it as close to the original as possible or because he thought correcting such mistakes had too little significance to be worthwhile.<br /><br />Alan Murdie has a lot of biographical information on Playfair in the obituary in the SPR's Journal cited above. And Paranormal Review <a href="https://www.spr.ac.uk/sites/spr.ac.uk/files/Paranormal%20Review%2087%20Cover%20and%20Contents%20%28Summer%202018%29.pdf" rel="nofollow">published an issue focused on him shortly after his death</a>. In the obituary I cited, Murdie wrote:<br /><br />"In helping provide information for a Fleet Street obituary, I was pressed to say Guy Playfair was a 'confirmed bachelor'. He was nothing of the sort, as confirmed by evidence from his own writings, the recollections of family members and photographic evidence of associations with a number of glamorous women up until the mid-1970s. However, the breaking off of an engagement with one particular girlfriend over this period seems thereafter to have terminated any marital plans and propelled him into the life of a dedicated scholar." (192)<br /><br />Thanks for the comments and the encouragement!Jason Engwerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17031011335190895123noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-23232150826635303292020-08-02T14:04:14.502-04:002020-08-02T14:04:14.502-04:00Kudos Jason for providing some of the finance that...Kudos Jason for providing some of the finance that permitted the digitization of the Enfield tapes. In the annals of psychic research, the case is a classic of poltergeist phenomena and it is dispiriting that it has not received much greater attention. The question of why that is and the irreconcilable differences between those like us who accept that paranormal phenomena occurs (at least prima facie) and the implacable skeptics constitute fascinating issues in themselves. Robert McLuhan goes some way to explaining this gulf and the nature of the skeptical mindset in his excellent 2010 book 'Randi's Prize'. And of course, there were at times even skeptics at the scene at Enfield who couldn't be swayed. <br /><br />I only ever had one or two exchanges with Playfair - on Mcluhan's site 'Paranormalia'. The exchanges were only about some minor details of the case but, as you point out, he was rightly active in defending the legitimacy of the Enfield phenomenon. Playfair strikes me as an interesting character in general and his life before and after Enfield is interesting. I first learnt more about his time in Brazil while reading the chapter entitled 'The Black Magic Connection' in Colin Wilson's book on the poltergeist. Although illuminating, it is difficult to see how there might be any such connection with the Enfield case. Black magic and the Spiritist credo are hardly a feature of north London life in the same way they often are in Brazil. But of course, despite the ambiguity surrounding the use of Ouija boards, it seems plausible that the use of one by Janet and Margaret may have opened some sort of gateway, as it appears to have also done with the bizarre stench that bedevilled Tony Cornell for a number of months. <br /><br />You allude to Playfair's disposition and manner and it is evident that he was an educated man. I believe that one of his books, 'Cycles of Heaven', is principally a work of science; and he also mentions his interest in sunspots in his book on Enfield. Do you know much about his life and work aside from Enfield? I have wondered, for example, that given he spent in excess of 1,000 hours at Enfield how he was sustaining himself financially? And what of his personal and family life? I had assumed that he was a bachelor - though I've never come across any information whatsoever about his personal life. <br /><br />As for his book on Enfield, I was a tad disappointed by some of the spelling and grammatical errors. My copy is the 2007, 30th anniversary edition by Sutton Publishing. As you say Jason, Playfair will have been in a hurry to publish the book in 1980, but how do you feel about these errors in the 2007 edition and their bearing on Playfair's assiduity as an investigator and researcher? You will recall my highlighting Tony Cornell's unflattering reference to Playfair's book 'The Haunted Pub Guide'. <br /><br />I look forward to reading your forthcoming tribute to John Burcombe, and perhaps learning more about his utterly extraordinary experiences at the house - particularly the ones in which he was completely alone. Anthonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00974704318403476689noreply@blogger.com