A few weeks ago, I was reading on the Facebook page for Jim Harold’s Virtual Campfire where people share stories of ghosts, cryptids, and UFOs. One poster was an archaeologist, George Luke, who shared this story: “In 1993 I was working on various archaeological sites along a new gas pipeline in Hertfordshire. In this case, we had found a Saxon grubben house and several burials. When we first machined the trench onto the bleached chalk bedrock there were lots of fragments of charred timber, melted bronze and Iron spear and sword fragments.
Myself and boss were standing watching the topsoil strip. Suddenly I felt very nauseous, hot, and disorientated. I could see fire all around me. People were screaming. One huge man clothed in a mail shirt and Iron cap with nose guard was ruthlessly hacking at everyone in sight. No one escaped.
My boss turned and said, “Are you alright?”
I replied, “We must look for their graves.”
He looked at me as if I was crazy. “Whose graves?”
I said, “The ones who fell. I said there should be four. A man, a woman, a young boy, and a teenage girl.”
It rained heavily that night. Next day, about 10 metres away from the Grubb hut, four dark stains could be seen in the white chalk. I chose the one in the photograph. I saw her die by one axe blow to the head. She fought to the last.
When I began excavating, I felt anger, empathy, and remorse?! It felt like in a previous existence, I had been that axe wielder. That evening, my hands were red and swollen, and I had a splitting headache. Guilt rode me like a nightmare.
So, I took three days to carefully clean her bones and produce a pathology report. The pathology said, defensive wounds to the hands and forearms from an axe, and death from one blow to the skull.
On day three I lifted her bones and placed them in a cardboard coffin and skull box. Why? I don’t know, but I put meadowsweet in both boxes. It seemed the right thing to do.
I have excavated hundreds of human graves. This one though made the biggest impression.”
According to the Merrian-Webster dictionary, the word “psychometry” is defined as divination of facts concerning an object or its owner through contact with or proximity to the object.
The website liveabout.com defines it as “a psychic ability in which a person can sense or “read” the history of an object by touching it. Such a person can receive impressions from an object by holding it in his/her hands or, alternatively, touching it to the forehead. Such impressions can be perceived as images, sounds, smells, tastes, and even emotions.”
The article goes on to say that it’s a form of scrying, and gives an example of a person with psychometric abilities holding an antique glove and being able to tell something about the history of the glove, the person who owned it, or about the experiences that person had while in possession of that glove.
The website, medium.com, share the history of psychometry. “In 1842, Joseph R Buchanan who was a professor in physiology, coined this term using the words ‘psyche’ which means soul in Greek, and ‘metron’ which means measure. He was one of the first people to experiment with this concept. Using students from his classes, he would fill different glass vials with a drug and would ask the students to determine what was inside just by holding the vial. He felt that the results were more than just a person being able to guess and his findings were published in his book ‘Journal of Man.’
In 1854, William F Denton who was an American professor in Geology took Buchanan’s work further to see if this concept would work with geological specimens. His sister Anne was his test subject. He would wrap the rock or specimens in a cloth, and she would hold the item to her forehead where she claimed to receive a mental impression of the actual specimen.
Between the years of 1919 to 1922, Gustav Pagenstecher, who was a German Doctor and also a psychical researcher, found one of his patients had this ability. While holding a certain object, his patient would go into a trance and was able to talk about the past and present of the item, being specific about smells, sounds, sights, and feelings.”
Psychic Jack Rourke wrote about psychometry in his book “The Rational Psychic” and on his website JackRourke.net. Here is an excerpt: “In my book The Rational Psychic I tell two stories about psychometry from early on in my development. The first was about how I took a necklace belonging to my girlfriend into my hand and opened my psychic faculties. I then wrote a list of all the little details I saw. When I shared my list with my girlfriend, I learned I had very accurately described the inside of her parents’ home. My visions included unique pieces of furniture and the view from their living room window. What was amazing was I had never met my girlfriend’s parents and their home was more than seven thousand miles away.
The second story I told about psychometry in The Rational Psychic concerned a public demonstration I performed in a workshop. A hundred people each placed an article of jewelry in a single bag. Psychic volunteers would then blindly select an item from the bag and “read” it for the audience.
When I reached into the bag, I withdrew a small ring and held it tightly in my hand. Next, I began describing a scene playing out within my mind’s eye in response to holding the ring in my hand. As I relaxed my vision expanded, and it was as if I was literally standing inside my vision. I continued explaining what I was seeing. After a few moments, a man stood from within the audience and he began confirming everything I said. But when my reading was over, and I handed him back his ring something happened I had not expected. The man handed me back the ring and said it wasn’t his. I was shocked. Everyone in attendance was confused. He had confirmed everything about my psychic vision concerning his childhood and a special birthday party thrown for him in a local park. I showed the ring to the rest of the crowd. No one claimed it. There was a very long awkward pause. Finally, a coarse sounding elderly woman from across the room stood up. The ring belonged to her. She was the mother of the man who confirmed my psychic visions.”
Another psychic medium, Salicrow, shared her experience on her website. “A few years back, I was teaching a workshop on Psychometry. Psychometry is the Psychic Art of using an item belonging to a person, to connect with their Spirit, or gain information about them. A group of 10 women had gathered, each bringing an item to share. One at a time, items were passed around the room. We waited until each person had held the item before we discussed what we felt/saw/knew, when holding the item. One of the items brought was a small, white, enamel cup.
As the cup was passed around the room, it was accompanied by the unmistakable smell of Maple Syrup. Each person who held it could smell it, and soon the room itself took on the smell of sap boiling. The cup had belonged to the Grandfather of one of the participants. It hung on a nail in the family Sugarhouse and had been used for years for sampling the liquid tree goodness.”
I’ve heard people talk about their experiences when they visit ancient sites in the UK or Europe. They mention that they can “feel” the history all around them as they walk on ancient cobblestoned roads or stand inside the ruins of old castles. I’ve personally felt those kinds of feelings when I’ve walked around Civil War battlegrounds, is it the spirits of those who lost their lives, or have the ground, rocks, trees, and streams absorbed the pain and violence of that war?
It’s intriguing to think about it, isn’t it?
And what about all of those antiques you might have lying around your home. What memories do they hold? Are they somehow beckoning to their former owners to claim them?
Certainly, something to think about…
Happy Friday!!!