Dead Popular

How do you fancy being strapped into a straitjacket, placed in a punishment cell in the dark and submitted to psychological tests, live on the Internet.

No? Then how about spending a whole night conducting seances, ghost tours and detecting real-life spirits?

Perhaps a guided tour of the ghostly tunnels leading from the Oxford Castle site to the council offices might be more up your street, or an evening with a psychological illusionist, a bona-fide ghost-hunter, dark magician or a parapsychologist?

But who would actually put themselves through that? Well, lots of you apparently. In fact, large sections of the Oxford Castle Ghost Festival has already sold out, such is your eagerness to explore the unknown. In it’s third year it’s back for 10 days from today until Halloween – October 31 – bigger and better than ever.

Teenagers in particular are a big new market for the ghost festival, with some key events being geared towards them. Three spirit nights hosted by teen psychic Ross Bartlett will take any 13+ adventurers on a three-hour ghost odyssey full of visuals, on site investigations, seances and use of electronic voice phenomenon to pick up the sounds of the dead. Parents need to come too.

Other attractions are the overnight vigils lasting from 9pm-5am including stories, walkabouts with famous mediums, seances and lots of black coffee. Late-night tours with Dr Kieran O’Keefe and Ian Lawman are filling up fast and there is even a psychic dinner organised at The Mitre, where three courses and a pyschic session will set you back £45.

Ghost stories are being read in the crypt by MR James and illusionist Paul Bell will be mystifying his audiences, alongside Dark Angel Sean Booth. Even the council’s hallkeeper is guiding an unsuspecting public through Oxford’s ghostly tunnels, regaling them with the tales of strange and abnormal happenings.

But the piece de resistance must be the brand new star attraction In Extremis – which is Latin for Point Of Death – where two untouched Georgian punishment cells will be the venue for a live internet experiment where volunteers will be straitjacketed and placed in the cells in the pitch black while a series of psychological experiments are conducted on them. Not one for the faint-hearted!

And if you think the youngsters have escaped unscathed, then think again. Halloween Horrors starts on October 24 and includes Frightful Family Fun trails culminating in The Witches Hut and Spooky Tours twice an hour around the Oxford Castle Unlocked site.

So there you go, something for the whole family.

And no, The Munsters aren’t in town. This is for real.

Oxford Castle Ghost Fest runs from today until Halloween with an event running every day. For further information or to book tickets go to www.frightnights.co.uk or call 0114 2513232.

MEET THE TEENAGE PSYCHIC: While most 17-year-olds are out partying, Ross Bartlett, above, spends his time engaging with the spirit world. Known as the Teenage Psychic, Ross is one of the big names coming to the Oxford Castle Ghost Fest, which opens today, to lead a series of mini ghost hunts for teenagers.

Having left school at 16 to become a full-time medium, he admits it wasn’t always an easy path to follow. “No-one at school really knew about my gift,” he admits. “I went to a rough school in Southampton and I didn’t have an urge to vocalise anything. People cannot really grasp the concept at that age anyway.”

But he did. “I just took it in my stride. I saw things from the age of five, when an old woman appeared at the end of my bed, and my family and girlfriend have always been very accepting of it. I started going to a spiritualist church from the age of 13 and gave my first demonstration aged 15.”

Ross’s fame spread immediately, but does he feel that he missed out on a normal childhood? ”This is what my passion is and what I’m interested in. It’s what I have dedicated my life to.”

* Ross Bartlett has sold out every night at the Oxford Castle Ghost Fest except October 31. Log on to frightnights.co.uk or call 01142513232.