Scole is a village a couple of miles south of Diss, close to the Norfolk and Suffolk border. Between 1993 and 1998 a small group of physical mediums, known as the Scole Group, held sittings at a private house in the village. The sittings were held in darkness or near darkness, and the participants reported a range of phenomena: unexplained lights, voices, photographs, and objects that seemed to appear from nowhere.
The sittings drew the attention of psychical researchers, and investigators connected with the Society for Psychical Research attended some of them. A report was later published, and the resulting claims have been argued over ever since.
Supporters regard Scole as important evidence for physical mediumship. Critics have questioned the experimental controls and whether the conditions were enough to rule out more conventional explanations. Sittings held in the dark, with the group controlling the room, are a recurring objection in the literature on this kind of mediumship.
The pin is set on the village only. The private house is not publicly identified here and, as the Spooky Isles feature on the Diss area stresses, it is a private home that should be left alone. This entry records the claims as claims, with no endorsement of the phenomena. It is separate from the haunting of the Scole Inn, which has its own record.
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