An unexplained flickering of lights at the Royal Wanganui Opera House has tipped Canadian hypnotist Paul Royter further toward believing in ghosts.
He thinks there was a ghost present, and that it objected to being hypnotised.
Mr Royter performed at the opera house on Tuesday night, to raise funds for a children's
foundation. The lights, dimmed as the hypnotic state was induced, started flickering on and off for no known reason.
Opera house manager John Richardson said the flickering must be due to a technical fault. He wouldn't comment on the ghost explanation.
But Mr Royter said odd things happen under hypnotism.
"Your conscious mind goes to sleep and your subconscious mind takes over."
The flickering of dimmed lights was "the oddest that I have ever experienced" he said.
"I don't go around and say that there's ghosts, but I certainly believe that it's possible."
While in Wanganui Mr Royter was told that a 16-year-old virtuoso violinist performing at the opera house heard footsteps following him around the theatre.
"He was so shaken that it took several people to calm him down."
Opera House technician Fred Holmes doesn't know about the violinist. But what happened to the lights on Tuesday night was definitely odd.
"We had some lights come on that were not programmed to come on."
He would be loath to relate the Wanganui ghost to a specific person. But he said one candidate was a female dancer, who died after her dress caught fire during a performance in the early 1900s.
Another possibility identity for the ghost is Frank Sayring, a 57-year-old opera house technician who died there in February 1956.
His daughter-in-law, Rona Sayring, recalls that he suffered a heart attack during the first performance of the year and was dead by the time he arrived at hospital.
"He worked in most of the theatres in Wanganui. He was a projectionist," Mrs Sayring said.
"He loved the theatre very much, loved the shows."
