Peter Underwood 's haunting "case that never was" a ghost

In his 1993 book 'Ghosts and How to See Them' the late President and Chief Investigator of Britain's Ghost Club, Peter Underwood, advises that even if we see or hear things that we cannot explain "it does not mean that ghosts are responsible." He then proceeds to tell us about one such incident that he experienced:

The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) had asked Peter Underwood to investigate a case of ghostly music in a London home that had left other investigators baffled. Music was heard at various times of day and night in the downstairs rooms of the house, the owner didn't seem disturbed by the music but was seeking an expert answer as to what was going on.

Upon arrival at the house Peter and the owner sat and talked about the unexplained music when lo and behold it started playing in another room. Mr Underwood went to investigate, the owner followed him and the music stopped.

Peter Underwood spent three hours in that house, going from room to room, sometimes alone, sometimes with the owner who he talked to at great length. During those three hours he concluded that the music was only heard whilst the owner of the house was sitting in his armchair, so he watched him very closely and noticed that just before the music started up the owner seemed to squeeze the arm of the chair he was sitting in. If the owner was not sitting in the chair the music was not playing!

When the owner left the room to go to the kitchen Peter Underwood took the opportunity to examine the armchair. He found hidden buttons under the upholstery, upon pressing one the music started playing. The owner of the house rushed back into the room where upon he made his confession.

The house owner had rigged up speakers and recorded music under the floorboards of the downstairs rooms that he could play remotely from his armchair. For six years he had been greatly amused by the failure of the "so-called experts" to figure out what had been going on!

(Image: By Christopher Underwood - Emailed to me by my father, Christopher Underwood, Peter's son, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=102776183)

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