Two audience members take part in a healing experiment conducted by wiccan high priestess Ipsita Roy Chakraverti at a Wiccan Brigade meet on Saturday. Picture by Rashbehari Das

It’s a “ghost town” that Daniel Radcliffe wants to visit but before Harry Potter could weave his magic wand, Calcutta-based wiccan high priestess Ipsita Roy Chakraverti and her Wiccan Brigade members have conducted a psychic investigation of Rajasthan’s Bhangarh fort.

Deserted since 1783 when a famine wiped out life from this quaint little township near the Sariska wildlife sanctuary, Bhangarh is now a mass of ruins. The historical site supervised by the Archaeological Survey of India has made a name for being one of the country’s most haunted places, and hence is now a major tourist draw.

“There is very little difference between the psychic and superstition in our country. In this regard, the psychic investigation undertaken by the Wiccan Brigade is a pioneering effort. The idea behind the trip was to explore if imprints of past trauma can survive in the atmosphere and if it is possible to tap into them,” said Ipsita, at a Wiccan Brigade meet in Taj Bengal on Saturday.

“This is what TC Lethbridge (director of excavations for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society) had worked on. He has written about an electrical field that is created by trauma and which people can experience later on. Another objective of the trip was to explore the impact of earth energies on a place, for which we carried various equipment,” added the wiccan high priestess.

Members of the Brigade back from the Bhangarh trip shared their experiences and photographic material that “suggested spirit activity”. They also highlighted the fact that Bhangarh was being “misused” with villagers conducting “a form of witch-hunt and rituals with a negative purpose” within the fort compound.

If Bhangarh gave the goosebumps, the other half of the daylong meet was reserved for a spot of healing. The Konark Code, a 25-minute documentary on the Sun temple at Konark written and produced by Ipsita, was screened. It was first shown at the Nehru Centre in London in 2008.

Taken from Ipsita’s case files, the docu film made in 2007 takes a look at how the topography of Konark and the building components of the Sun temple make the land a “power spot”. Avijit Banerjee, the director of The Konark Code, has tried to marry myth and medicine in the film.

“It was a two-fold research on Konark. It began with the Puranas, which mention Lord Krishna’s son Samba being cured of leprosy there. Then there was our study into the medicinal properties of the temple building. The foundation of the temple is of laterite stone. Coupled with the salty seawater, the silica present in the sand and the humidity, it made for a very potent healing spot,” said Banerjee. “The more we researched the subject, the more I was convinced that Konark was once a hospital-like place.”

“Perhaps the key to the Konark code lies in the light of the sun and the sound of the sea,” said Ipsita, before inviting the audience to participate in a healing experiment with sound and rocks that she had sourced from the land of the Sun temple.

What do you think is the difference between the psychic and superstition? Tell ttmetro@abpmail.com