peterhogg Posted 30 April , 2011 Share Posted 30 April , 2011 Agreed. It would not shock me to learn though, that someone has pitched the idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deerhunter Posted 1 May , 2011 Share Posted 1 May , 2011 Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't want to disappoint anyone, but I remember watching the attached programme nearly ten years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUTu6V2eu04 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLn8yLaV-Xc&feature=related Regards, DH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 2 May , 2011 Share Posted 2 May , 2011 oh dear...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wainfleet Posted 2 May , 2011 Share Posted 2 May , 2011 Actually, that could have been a lot worse. Apart from the somewhat unfortunate it's-coming-to-get-you music, the subject was treated with a suitable level of reverence and respect, with none of the shouting, squealing and generally unseemly behaviour of the t**ts from Most Haunted. You wouldn't talk to a live stranger like that, so why try it with a dead one, and to give them credit these people didn't. Plus there was an informed historian not unknown to GWF members! Lots of familiar locations, but ghosts were pretty thin on the ground and I doubt anyone's going to be convinced of anything much by that programme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 2 May , 2011 Share Posted 2 May , 2011 Actually, that could have been a lot worse. Apart from the somewhat unfortunate it's-coming-to-get-you music, the subject was treated with a suitable level of reverence and respect, with none of the shouting, squealing and generally unseemly behaviour of the t**ts from Most Haunted. You wouldn't talk to a live stranger like that, so why try it with a dead one, and to give them credit these people didn't. Plus there was an informed historian not unknown to GWF members! Lots of familiar locations, but ghosts were pretty thin on the ground and I doubt anyone's going to be convinced of anything much by that programme. Good thoughts. I agree, on second thought. It could have been much worse. If it were "Most Haunted" they'd be running about Delville Wood in the dark, tripping over each other and yelling "what was that? did you hear that? it came from over there!!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachlan Posted 3 May , 2011 Share Posted 3 May , 2011 I've sometimes wondered about going to the Arras area and sitting on a certain piece of ground nr Roeux after dark on 2nd May and remaining there until daylight on the 3rd. It's the field where my Gt Uncle was killed on 3rd May 1917 and contains Cuba Trench from where 8th Black Watch launched their attack with 9th Scottish Division at 3.45am on the 3rd. I was kind of hoping that if I did I would see some of the Black Watch lads re-appear, particularly my Gt Uncle and could we sit on the edge of the ghostly trench and have a dram and chat awhile. Not bloody likely since I found the field is nowadays next the base of a motorway clover-leaf interchange ! I doubt if soldierly spirits like anywhere so public ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw Posted 3 May , 2011 Share Posted 3 May , 2011 The problem with the telly progs is that whilst the medium may not know exactly where he is, he must know he is on a Great War battlefield with all that implies. The rest then follows on including the good old surname "Wilkinson" as a suggested contact. There are over 200 Wilkinsons on the Thiepval Memorial alone. Of course, we aren't given the full detail of his named contacts, so it is difficult to comment in a ny detail. A young and fresh faced Tom Morgan adding a bit of expert gravitas is a lovely sight though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterhogg Posted 3 May , 2011 Share Posted 3 May , 2011 As IanW aptly observes, the "psychic"s" reactions are very likely informed by what he already knows about the place. The same goes, in my view, anyway, for any of us who visit and experience odd or unusual sensations. To truly test the skills of someone professing to be psychic, you need to implement some controls. Let's take the "Most Haunted" folks. What you need to do is blindfold them and take them on some long trip so they don't know where they are and then release them in the middle of some big, spooky wood in the middle of the night in November. Lie to them and say it's Bourlon Wood, for example or some other such nonsense and just leave them there with their little personal cameras and see what happens. It's up to you whether you actually decide to pick them up afterwards. Either way, it would be pretty fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SFayers Posted 3 May , 2011 Share Posted 3 May , 2011 As IanW aptly observes, the "psychic"s" reactions are very likely informed by what he already knows about the place. The same goes, in my view, anyway, for any of us who visit and experience odd or unusual sensations. To truly test the skills of someone professing to be psychic, you need to implement some controls. Let's take the "Most Haunted" folks. What you need to do is blindfold them and take them on some long trip so they don't know where they are and then release them in the middle of some big, spooky wood in the middle of the night in November. Lie to them and say it's Bourlon Wood, for example or some other such nonsense and just leave them there with their little personal cameras and see what happens. It's up to you whether you actually decide to pick them up afterwards. Either way, it would be pretty fun. I remember a few years back (presumably having little else to do at the time) watching one of their 'live' programs supposedly hunting for the ghost of Dick Turpin - they managed to get totally lost in Epping Forest and had to call-up a forest ranger to get them out again - hilarious! Though the bit I found funniest was Derek Acorah, their resident medium, repeatedly shouting out "Mary loves Dick!!" (well, I suppose it was after 9pm....) cheers Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lachlan Posted 4 May , 2011 Share Posted 4 May , 2011 That Derek Acora was a puddin' ! Didn't he get set up one time with completely made-up information about 2 sisters in Cornwall or something like that and he started doing his stuff and hearing a voice etc and the names of these made-up people ! He really got shown up there !!! It's all a load of rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 4 May , 2011 Share Posted 4 May , 2011 There has been a serious suggestion and discussion about 'Ghost Tours' of the Somme so don't be surprised if you see a tour bus painted up appropriately. Nothing is sacred from money making. Shhh....I've said to much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trenchbunny Posted 21 March , 2012 Share Posted 21 March , 2012 I have been 'guided' to this string by a mysterious hand, a rum hand at that. I'd like to thank Captain Morgan for giving me the biggest laughs I've had in ages. Why is it that when people take a walk at night, it's always 'cold', 'windy' and 'dark'? I think you're deluding yourselves. We're programmed to not like the dark as our eyes and senses don't work as well as in the strongest human medium of, LIGHT. From the dawning of time, animals that could prey on us have always hunted better at night because poor little defensive animals like rabbits and err, us, don't work so well when we can see bu***r all. Hence, living in caves and not letting the fire go out. Why don't we have a mass sleepover in Mametz or Delville on the anniversaries to answer this once and for all? Call 0800-Ineedtobelieve - if you're in need of a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazelclark Posted 21 March , 2012 Share Posted 21 March , 2012 Captain Morgan notwithstanding, there are things that seem to happen to some people for which we do not at present have an explanation. I come from a Scottish family with belief in"second sight". My first recollection of this phenomenon was my Grandmother telling me how her Mother witnessed the death of her son in Flanders and was weeping and wailing for days before the dreaded telegram turned up. Odd things have happened to others in the family but only seems to be parent / child things. Maybe there is some sort of "collective unconscious" to which some people have access? Hazel C. I have been 'guided' to this string by a mysterious hand, a rum hand at that. I'd like to thank Captain Morgan for giving me the biggest laughs I've had in ages. Why is it that when people take a walk at night, it's always 'cold', 'windy' and 'dark'? I think you're deluding yourselves. We're programmed to not like the dark as our eyes and senses don't work as well as in the strongest human medium of, LIGHT. From the dawning of time, animals that could prey on us have always hunted better at night because poor little defensive animals like rabbits and err, us, don't work so well when we can see bu***r all. Hence, living in caves and not letting the fire go out. Why don't we have a mass sleepover in Mametz or Delville on the anniversaries to answer this once and for all? Call 0800-Ineedtobelieve - if you're in need of a friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 21 March , 2012 Share Posted 21 March , 2012 Why is it that when people take a walk at night, it's always 'cold', 'windy' and 'dark'? I think you're deluding yourselves. Say what you like about ghosties and ghoulies, it is generally cold, windy and dark at night on the Somme, I don't think that part is a delusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 22 March , 2012 Share Posted 22 March , 2012 I have read some accounts of Great War soldiers having a premonition of their own death and this was confided to and recorded by their pal's. Nothing they could say or do could shake the 'victim' out of it and they were subsequently killed. There must of course have been people who felt the same and survived, still you have to wonder, what is the normal fear of death in battle as compared to the absolute certainty of death experienced by others. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wainfleet Posted 30 March , 2012 Share Posted 30 March , 2012 I have been 'guided' to this string by a mysterious hand, a rum hand at that. I'd like to thank Captain Morgan for giving me the biggest laughs I've had in ages. Why is it that when people take a walk at night, it's always 'cold', 'windy' and 'dark'? I think you're deluding yourselves. We're programmed to not like the dark as our eyes and senses don't work as well as in the strongest human medium of, LIGHT. From the dawning of time, animals that could prey on us have always hunted better at night because poor little defensive animals like rabbits and err, us, don't work so well when we can see bu***r all. Hence, living in caves and not letting the fire go out. Why don't we have a mass sleepover in Mametz or Delville on the anniversaries to answer this once and for all? Call 0800-Ineedtobelieve - if you're in need of a friend. I see. You can't understand it, therefore it doesn't exist and all the thousands of eyewitness accounts, including many by respected, balanced and down-to-earth people, are all delusions. Right-ho! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 31 March , 2012 Share Posted 31 March , 2012 I would love to say something very meaningful and full of philosophical insights, however history is full of them. Personal experiences can never be impressed on those who simply are not receptive to them. and it really does not matter, like a lot of things on this forum it's up to the individual what he/she wishes to accept or reject. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 31 March , 2012 Share Posted 31 March , 2012 Yes you are right, I know that my bookcase isn't haunted, how can it be, but late at night when the 3 cats all suddenly start growling at it, hackles raised and I notice that a book appears to be stuck out slightly more than it was the last time I looked, then I just get slightly unsettled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianto Posted 10 April , 2012 Share Posted 10 April , 2012 He has a point though ... the bit about soldiers have premonitions of their own death is a bit obvious really - "oh, I'm in a war zone hell hole - I predict I will get killed" ... no shock there. Also, no direspect intended to a grieving mother but how many mothers have "foreseen" their son's death for it not to happen - "my son's in a war zone he is bound to die". Ultimately there's a lot we don't know, but there's a lot we can explain without reverting to witchcraft et al.. Don't get me wrong - I'd love some of this ghosty stuff to be true.. (If you need an example of people over reacting in wet, windy, dark conditions watch "Only fools and Horses" episode when they drive to a cottage in the country - on arrival they find out a mad axeman is on the loose...) ======= :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
auchonvillerssomme Posted 10 April , 2012 Share Posted 10 April , 2012 As and aside to premonitions. When I left school one of my job options I was considering was overhead linesman with British Rail, it sounded quite exciting and was top of my list, but before I started my dad got quite twitchy about it and asked me not to take up the offer, he had a very vivid dream of me electricuted, burnt and dead on a railway track, so I made a change in direction. 2 years later 2 overhead linesmen of the gang I would have been working with were killed a short distance from the local station. My dad was a fireman at the time and was first to attend the scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
equusv Posted 24 May , 2012 Share Posted 24 May , 2012 I began researching a subject pertaining to WWI in 2005. In the last 7 years I have accumulated about 4 and a half type-written pages of otherworldly happenings from the small to the spectacular. It wasn't what I had in mind when I started this project but someday, I will write about it as a project of its own. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hazelclark Posted 24 May , 2012 Share Posted 24 May , 2012 Being a ex-pat highland Scot, whose childhood was steeped in superstition, I would love to read it. Is it emailable? Hazel C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rose of picardy Posted 25 May , 2012 Share Posted 25 May , 2012 This is somewhat OT-but I had an eerie experience in a cemetery in Athens, Georgia where many Confederate soldiers are buried. I was doing research for a folklore project for a university class. It was a windy fall day and I was taking down information from gravestones. All of a sudden, the wind was completely still and I had a very odd feeling that something was just behind me. I just stood there and couldn't move. Then, all of a sudden, the wind returned and never stopped the rest of the time I was there. I looked behind me and nothing was there. That was enough paranormal for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ianto Posted 14 June , 2012 Share Posted 14 June , 2012 This is a good read ...... http://suite101.com/article/ghosts-of-world-war-i-crisis-apparitions-and-ww-i-ghost-photo-a300591 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Khaki Posted 14 June , 2012 Share Posted 14 June , 2012 I tend to take notice when human behaviour differs from the normal one would expect, and it appears that in some cases this is what alerts witnesses to what they are seeing is not 'normal' interaction with living people. This has happened to me twice once in my home and another time at the Antietam Battlefield both events are fairly recent. I have never experienced anything on a Great War battlefield although many have especially around Mametz (see other posts). I cannot understand why Mametz would have that singular reputation as opposed to any other, but having read this thread it appears that it does. khaki Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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