Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural During the First World War
During the First World War there were many events that some regarded as paranormal in origin. From prophecies of the Great War to the Angels of Mons and seance room communications with the spirits of deceased soldiers, the First World War gave rise to an unprecedented number of legends, mysteries and allegedly paranormal experiences.
Private Cleaver Swears on Oath to Having Seen the Angels at Mons The only named witness to the Angels of Mons to come forward during the First World War was Robert Cleaver, a private in the 1st Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment. Not only did he claim to have seen the Angels, he swore an affidavit […]
A Vision of the Virgin Mary on the Eastern Front, 1914 On the eve of the Battle of Augustovo, the Russian Army was allegedly witness to a religious vision of the Virgin Mary, Baby Jesus and a huge shining cross, inspiring them to victory against the Germans. Ralph Shirley, the editor of the Occult Review, […]
Did Leo Tolstoy Foresee the First World War? On Saturday, 22 August 1914, as the British Expeditionary Force took up positions around the town of Mons in Belgium, the Spiritualist magazine Light published another prophecy of war, this time one attributed to the great Russian writer Count Leo Tolstoy. Light had published Tolstoy’s prophecy before, […]
Sir Oliver Lodge’s London Speech on the Great War and Evil In November 1914, the eminent scientist and member of the Society for Psychical Research, Sir Oliver Lodge, gave a talk about ‘Science and Religion’ at the Browning Hall in Walworth, London. The hall was crowded with more than a thousand people. The Mayor of […]
Arthur Machen Claims Short Story ‘The Bowmen’ Inspired the Angels Legend The writer Arthur Machen claimed to have invented the greatest supernatural mystery of the First World War: the Angels of Mons. The problem was, nobody believed him. When World War I broke out, Welshman Arthur Machen was living in London and earning a living […]
The Philosopher F.C.S. Schiller on Predictions of the First World War It was psychologically to be expected that the terrific strain of the most terrible of wars should produce widespread emotional disturbance in the populations subjected to it, and that this, again, should lead to an apparent recrudescence of many primitive beliefs and practices. So […]
Wartime Revelations of a Ghost Hunters’ Dining Club The Ghost Club was a private, but not quite secret, dining club that met in London to discuss ghosts, naturally. Sir William Crookes, one of the leading lights of the Society for Psychical Research, was President of the Ghost Club throughout the duration of the war. According […]
Controversy surrounding the Angels of Mons legend prompted the Society for Psychical Research to launch an investigation. Assistant Research Officer Helen Woollgar de Gaudrion Verrall (later Salter) was given the task of collecting and weighing the evidence in the case of the alleged angels at the Battle of Mons: had it been a supernatural intervention to save the British Expeditionary Force, or had it been something else?
Investigating the Paranormal During the First World War All of these strange signs and portents did not go unnoticed. The popular press reported some of them, the Spiritualist press almost all of them. Nor did they go uninvestigated. At the outbreak of the First World War there already existed an organisation for the investigation of […]
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Prophecies and Premonitions of the First World War A month before Britain declared war on Germany, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published an astonishingly accurate description of how the war would develop in a new and previously unimagined way. Author Envisages Unrestricted Submarine Warfare ‘Singularly prophetic.’ The short story ‘Danger! Being the […]