A regular feature of people’s encounter with liminal and numinous sites is an anomalous or disquieting experience… This section considers the non-mundane side of antiquarian field work.
Mark Greener describes how research is pointing to humans’ own magnetic compass Every time I get close to certain Avebury stones, an area I know and love, I experience a definite, palpable sensation lurking on the edges of my perception. Sadly, I wasn’t thrown back like Roj Blake (OK, it was Adam Brake in …
There has been a lot of discussion on the NEReaders Forum about transpersonal experiences at ancient sites. This inspired David Taylor to share with NE readers two of his own experiences at Avebury a few years ago. A Flash of Inspiration In the Winter on 1992 a series of events were about to …
Michael Haslam recounts weird experiences on West Yorkshire and Highland moors Story: A Stone Circle on Midgley Moor I came to live at Foster Clough, on the edge of Midgley Moor, in September 1970. I’d visited the area a few times, and I had gained a rough idea of local topography. I’d come to join …
Rock-solid Boggarts in a Ring: An experience of ‘other’ Read More »
John Billingsley isn’t the only one to get a buzz from the countryside; here he reports on some experiences of the so-called ‘hummadruz’. “This isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs” wrote William Shakespeare for Prospero in the play The Tempest. Perhaps he was writing from personal experience, for this isle of Britain …
Thomas Hanley’s fascinating account of aerial apparitions of military manoeuvres first appeared in the Yorkshire Folk-Lore Journal in 1888, and remains of much interest in the annals of northern forteana. On the 18th of January, 1792, a singular meteoric appearance was observed near Stockton-on-the-Forest, about four miles from York, which resembled a large army in …
Mike Haigh compiles reports of anomalous lights over the Pennines Anomalous light phenomena have been noticed travelling over the landscape by people throughout human existence. Each culture interprets these events according to its own belief system. When our own modern culture first apparently noticed these unusual phenomena during the 1940s it tried to understand them …
A Strange Experience at Janet’s Foss, near Gordale Scar, Malham, N Yorks. One of the entries we received in our Alternate Realities competition in 2008 was this intriguing report by Paul Degnan It was 21st March 1972. I was hitch-hiking with my girlfriend around the Dales. I wanted to show her round the Malham area, …
Edna Whelan was a familiar name to friends of NE and holy wells, as well to many others with whom her enthusiasms brought her into contact. We regret that she passed on June 15 2015, at the age of 95. In 1995 she wrote this article for NE that expresses her very intuitive and experiential …
We frequently hear the word ‘shamanism’ bandied about in the context of prehistoric and tribal religion, and even in the context of witchcraft and modern contemporary trance techniques. But how far, really, does this all-encompassing idea of shamanism take our understanding of the phenomenon itself? We asked Alby Stone to comment. Since about 1950, shamanism …