My father, many years ago, albeit in an attempt to de-bunk ley-lines, got out the local OS map (1" to the mile), and asked my mother to stick a pin, at random, into the bottom right hand corner of Essex. The name of the village she pierced began with "S". My father then chose a village in the north west of the county that also began with the same letter. The line drawn between the two covered 30 miles of ground, and bisected 11 villages that began the letter "S", and countless other unifying features.

I lived bang next to an ancient church on Mendip for 9 years. One day, a hippy banged on the door to ask me if I was aware that I lived on one of the most significant ley-lines that the addled minds of Glastonbury had yet come up with. "Nope". I think it was the Tor to Silbury Hill, or somesuch. I may not sound it, but I am spiritually open minded, and I certainly didn't feel any cosmic influence, postive or negative. I moved to the yellow belly region of North Lincolnshire. I'm in this really cooking session at the local, and this other hippy up and tells me ...... yup, I live on a ley-line. Something about a Mott and Bailey on the Humber bank, and Thornton Abbey. What my socked and sandled friend did not know was that I live on the site of an unrecognised mediaeval priory, credited to Saint Chad, one of the holy brothers of Lindisfarne, who evangelised the North Humber Land. Again, no occasions of cosmic activity.

So my question to the leyliners is.... When did all this mumbo jumbo start and finish, assuming that finding a local branch of Sainsburys on a percieved line is not a cosmic coincidence? After all, we were bunging up churches and cathedrals right up to the Reformation that some eejit will claim start or finish lines, and that was a gnat's whisker of 500 years ago. Is there a demonstrable mathematic pattern to council house erection? Probably.

My answer is that man evolved the straight line, and has been fascinated with it ever since, and the natural order is chaos.

I think "Life of Brian" is perhaps the nost succinct study of the spiritually gullible hailing random connections. "It's a sign!!!"