Melvyn John Willin (born 1951) is an English musician, psychical researcher and archivist whose work has centred on music-related paranormal claims, hauntings, witchcraft and related anomalies. A longtime Society for Psychical Research Council member and archives liaison officer, he has authored books, articles and studies in the field.
- Willin completed PhDs in paramusicology and music in witchcraft ritual and culture.
- His ganzfeld experiments used music as the sending agent, although overall results were calculated as chance.
- As SPR Honorary Archives Liaison Officer, he has helped manage and digitise important audio, audio-visual and archival collections.
Contents
Life and Career
Melvyn John Willin (born 1951) is an English musician, psychical researcher and archivist, best known for his investigations into a variety of ‘paramusicological’ phenomena. Willin was born on 4 February 1951 in St Albans, England. He was educated at Francis Bacon Grammar School and then took music degrees at Kings College London (externally) and the University of Surrey. He received a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (LRAM) in 1996.
After a long period of teaching the guitar and music in schools, colleges, adult education centres and a prison, Willin returned to university and studied ‘paramusicology’ for his PhD at Sheffield University, under Eric Clarke with Robert Morris as his external supervisor. He received his degree from Sheffield in 1999 and in 2004 earned a second PhD at Bristol University, under Ronald Hutton, with a thesis that explored the place of music in witchcraft rituals and culture.
Willin plays several plucked-stringed instruments and is a performer in two English Morris sides. He founded the Essex Guitar orchestra in 1977. The orchestra has travelled worldwide giving concerts in a variety of locations. In addition to these musical accomplishments, he is trained in a variety of martial arts and underwent several years of study and practice in a formal witchcraft coven.
Willin joined the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in the latter half of the twentieth century. He was elected to its governing Council in 1997 and has remained on it since. In 2005, he was appointed Honorary Archive Liaison Officer, although he was performing the duties before that. Since 2002, he has worked on a part-time basis in Cambridge University Library (CUL) carrying out archival work on behalf of the SPR. He was on the premises at CUL for about five years.
Psychical Research
General
As archivist for the SPR, Willin has undertaken the digitalization of the audio and audio-visual works of the Society as well as the Enfield collections belonging to Maurice Grosse and Guy Playfair.1Willin has custody of the SPR’s audio and audio-visual material. The main SPR archives are in the Cambridge University Library with the majority of its photographs held at the Mary Evans Picture Library. His book The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes2Willin (2019). draws on these materials.
Willin taught parapsychology and psychical research at the Braintree College of Further Education and as part of the adult education service in Harlow, Essex, on and off throughout the 1990s until c. 2007. He has lectured on various aspects of psychical research in university departments as well as institutions such as the Women’s Institute and the Rotary Club. His talk on ‘ghosts’ was particularly well-received at Eton College.
Willin’s encyclopedic dictionary of music and the paranormal was published in 2022 Music and the Paranormal: An Encyclopedic Dictionary (2022) and he is involved in various projects exploring paranormal subjects. He is a frequent contributor to the SPR’s Psi Encyclopedia and was made an Associate Editor in April 2026. Currently (2026) he is completing a book on alleged paranormality within the martial arts, cataloguing the Alan Gauld archive for Cambridge University Library, and maintaining various contacts with organizations contemplating the production of film and television documentaries on psi.
Experiments
In the late 1990s, Willin held a series of over one hundred ganzfeld trials in a number of different locations where music was used as the sending agent between people. Despite some of the trials being extraordinarily successful, the overall results were calculated as chance.[i]3Willin (1996), 1-17.
Investigations
Musical mediums
In 1996–97, Willin investigated numerous mediums who claimed to be able to channel music from discarnate composers. They included a wide variety of people with a similar range of expertise. Some claimed to have no musical knowledge and only produced partially successful examples of the composers’ works, whilst others wrote or performed music that was recognizable as indicative of the composers’ or performers’ style and capabilities. The most famous example of these was Rosemary Brown, who wrote over 100 compositions in the style of numerous ‘classical’ composers.
Brown’s most prolific communications were from Liszt and Chopin, but she was also allegedly contacted by Beethoven, Bach, Schumann and several others. Her music was scrutinized by Willin and other professionals who felt the music lacked the inspiration that the original composers displayed. However, some of the works were inexplicable by any normal means of communication and it was therefore not possible to explain how she arrived at the results she sometimes achieved.
Haunted locations
Willin has travelled extensively throughout England to investigate alleged paranormal phenomena. Sometimes this was as a member of the Ghost Club to which he is a consultant. Investigations have taken place where both visual and auditory anomalies have occurred including the Bell Inn, Thetford, Borley Church, Beaulieu Abbey, St Anne’s Castle Inn, Great Leighs and the Black Lion, St Albans.
Willin has interviewed a large number of people about their ‘ghostly’ experiences and published two books of photographs of such phenomena from past and more recent cases.4Willin (2007a, 2008).
Other Investigations
Willin undertook a study of the efficacy of witchcraft spells for healing purposes compared to similar Christian prayers for well-being and found that both seemed to produce a similar number of positive or believed to be positive results.5Willin (2007b), 65-78.
An investigation into paranormality within the martial arts involved the inspection of claims of abilities beyond the realm of normal physical fitness. The results were mainly negative, but Willin did undergo a trial himself which produced a positive result… much to his considerable surprise.6Willin (2013), 48-70.
Works
Books
Music, Witchcraft and the Paranormal (2005). Ely: Melrose Books.
Ghosts Caught on Film (2007). Newton Abbot: David and Charles.
Paranormal Caught on Film (2008). Newton Abbot: David and Charles.
Monsters Caught on Film (2010). Newton Abbot: David and Charles.
The Best of Ghosts Caught on Film (with J. Eaton, 2012). Newton Abbot: David and Charles.
The Enfield Poltergeist Tapes (2019). Guildford, UK: White Crow Books.
Music and the Paranormal: An Encyclopedic Dictionary (2022). Jefferson: McFarland.
Chapters in Books
Music and witchcraft; Opera and witchcraft (2006). In The Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Western Tradition, ed. R. Golden. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.
Music and paganism with special reference to The Wicker Man (2006). In The Quest for the Wicker Man, ed. by B. Franks, S. Harper, J. Murray and L. Stevenson, 137-52. Edinburgh: Luath Press Ltd.
Music and the paranormal (2013). In The Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures, ed. O. Jenzen and S.R. Munt, 327-38. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Music and death (2015). In Paracoustics. Sound and the Paranormal, ed. S. Parsons and C. Cooper. Guildford: White Crow.
Book Reviews – Selection
Loving Mozart: A Past Life Memory of the Composer’s Final Years by M. Montano (1995). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 60, 339.
Dancing with Witches by L. Bourne (2006). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 70, 243.
This House is Haunted by G.L. Playfair (2008). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 72, 118-19.
Shakespeare’s Ghosts Live: From Shakespeare’s Ghosts to Psychical Research by A. Puhle and A. Parker-Reed (2017). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 81/3, 206-08.
Journal Articles
A ganzfeld experiment using musical targets (1996). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 61, 1-17.
A ganzfeld experiment using musical targets with previous high scorers from the general public (1996). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 61, 103-08.
Music and Spiritualism (1997). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 62, 46-57.
Letters (1999). Paranormal Review 10, 15-16.
Paranormal manifestations of music (2000). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 64, 93-108.
Investigation of alleged poltergeist case (2001). Paranormal Review 18, 3-5.
An ESP experiment at a Dracula convention (2002). Paranormal Review 24, 13-14.
The SPR Cambridge archive (2005). Paranormal Review 36, 3-5.
Oh no not Enfield again! A tribute to the work of Maurice Grosse (2007). Paranormal Review 41, 29-30.
Paranormal phenomena in British witchcraft and wiccan culture with special reference to spellcraft (2007b). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 71/2, 65-78.
The results of a questionnaire sent out in 2008 concerning the past, present and future of psychical research (2008). Paranormal Review 47, 16-17.
Music and death: An exploration of the place music has at the time of human death with special emphasis on the near-death experience (2011). Paranormal Review, 58, 3-10.
Martial Arts & the Paranormal (2013). Journal of the Institute of Martial Arts & Sciences, 2, 4, 48-70.
Creatures caught on film? (2016). Paranormal Review 80, 20-21.
The poltergeist tapes (2018). Paranormal Review 87, 13-14.
Reminiscences of Donald West (2020). Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 84/2, 127-28.
Compact Discs
Okkulte Stimmen – Mediale Musik: Recordings of Unseen Intelligences 1905–2007 (2007). Contributor/ Editor. Label: Supposé Catalogue: 3-932513-81-7.
Works Cited
Willin, M.J. (1996). A ganzfeld experiment using musical targets. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 61, 1-17.
Willin, M.J. (2007a). Ghosts Caught on Film. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles.
Willin, M.J. (2007b). Paranormal phenomena in British witchcraft and wiccan culture with special reference to spellcraft. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 71/2, 65-78.
Willin, M.J. (2008). Paranormal Caught on Film. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles.
Willin, M.J. (2013). Martial arts and the paranormal. Journal of the Institute of Martial Arts & Sciences 2, 4, 48-70.
