Page 37 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Ghosts and Phantoms 17

of their war-ravished village to the rats. The had not been growing increasingly uncomfort-
American troops, who looked down on the able in the rain, which was becoming steadily
charred ruins from their positions in the front- heavy. She decided that she was not made of
line bunkers, called Kumsong “The Capital of such hardy stock as the sturdy villagers and got
No Man’s Land.” But on some nights, soldiers back into her automobile to resume her trip.
would come back from their frozen bunkers Edith Olivier did not visit Avebury again
with stories of music, singing, and the laughter until nine years had passed. At that time, she
of women that had drifted up from the ghost was perplexed to read in the guidebook that,
town. So many Allied troops heard the ghost- although a village fair had once been an annu-
ly music that “Ching and his violin” became a al occurrence in Avebury, the custom had
reality to the front-line soldiers. been abolished in 1850. When she protested

Although both haunted landscapes and that she had personally witnessed a village fair
haunted houses seem most liable to receive in Avebury in 1916, the guide offered Olivier
their emotional energy from the psychic a sound and convincing rebuttal. Even more
charges generated by scenes of violence and astounding, perhaps, was the information she
tragedy, there have been reports of pleasant acquired concerning the megaliths. The par-
restorations of the past. ticular avenue on which she had driven on
that rainy night of her first visit had disap-
On a rainy evening in October of 1916,
Edith Olivier was driving from Devizes to peared before 1800.
Swindon in Wiltshire, England. The evening Edith Olivier’s experience begs the ques-
was so dreary that Olivier wished earnestly for tion: Just how substantial is a phantom? Can a
a nice, warm inn in which to spend the night. scene from the past return and assume tempo-
Leaving the main road, she found herself pass- rary physical reality once again? Did Olivier
ing along a strange avenue lined by huge gray drive her automobile on an avenue that was
megaliths. She concluded that she must have no longer there, or did she drive on a solid sur-
been approaching Avebury. Although Olivier face that had once been there and had tem-
had never been to Avebury before, she was porarily returned?
familiar with pictures of the area and knew According to those who have encountered
that the place had originally been a circular them, a materialized phantom seems as solid as
megalithic temple that had been reached by any human. Modern science no longer regards
long stone avenues. solids as solids at all but rather as congealed
When she reached the end of an avenue, wave patterns. Psychical researcher James
she got out of her automobile so that she might Crenshaw notes that the whole imposing array
better view the irregularly falling megaliths. As of subatomic particles—electrons, protons,
she stood on the bank of a large earthwork, she positrons, neutrinos, mesons—achieve “parti-
could see a number of cottages, which had cle-like characteristics” in a manner similar to
been built among the megaliths, and she was the way that wave patterns in tones and over-
surprised to see that, in spite of the rain, there tones produce characteristic sounds. Crenshaw
seemed to be a village fair in progress. The theorizes that ghosts may be made up of transi-
laughing villagers were walking merrily about tory, emergent matter that “…appears and dis-
with flares and torches, trying their skill at var- appears, can sometimes be seen and felt before
ious booths and applauding lustily for the tal- disappearing…behaves like ordinary matter
ented performers of various shows. but still has no permanent existence in the
framework of our conception of space and
Olivier became greatly amused at the care- time. In fact, after its transitory manifestations,
free manner in which the villagers enjoyed it seems to be absorbed back into another
themselves, completely oblivious to the rain. dimension or dimensions.…”
Men, women, and children walked about with-
out any protective outer garments and not a M Delving Deeper
single umbrella could be seen. She would have Edsall, F. S. The World of Psychic Phenomena. New
joined the happy villagers at their fair if she York: David McKay, 1958.

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