Landscapes of Panic
Areas that Cause Great Fear in Visitors for No Apparent Reason
Have you ever been out in nature and suddenly had an intense sense of fear come over you? There have been reports of incredibly healthy hikers that have suddenly dropped dead, supposedly from fear. What could be causing this phenomenon?
Patrick Harpur wrote an article for the Fortean Times telling of several instances of people being struck with a sudden sense of panic while in the wilderness.
One summer's afternoon in 1953, Harpur’s father and uncle were sea fishing off some rocks in Kerry. At one point one of their fishing rods snagged on something underwater. This is a pretty common thing to happen while fishing so they didn’t think much of it initially.
When they tried to pull the line free they got a distinct feeling that something was holding on to the line and as if some intelligent, horrific force was trying to pull them into the deep. The two men glanced at each other, both looking pale and shaken, they threw down their rods and ran for their lives. Experienced fishermen would not run in fear at a mere snag on a rock. There must be more to this story.
Yeats' scholar Tom Henn had an experience similar to Harpur’s Father and Uncle. He describes an experience when he was a teenager in 1915 when he was fishing near Paradise in Galway.
He was suddenly overcome with an overpowering sense of fear. He sprinted out of the water and ran a mile until he reached a cottage. There was nothing following him and nothing that could explain the sudden terror.
Medium and author Joan Grant was staying with her husband Leslie at a shooting-lodge in Scotland in August 1928. One hot day they decided to go for a gentle walk in the woods.
The weather was beautiful and Joan claimed that nothing could have been further from her mind than ghosts. Suddenly Joan was seized with such terror that she turned and in panic fled back along the path towards the lodge.
He husband ran after her asking what was wrong but all she could do was tell him to run. The couple had ran for about a mile and a half before they felt as if they had crossed some invisible barrier and were now safe.
A few years later, a local doctor told Joan that two hikers had been found dead in the exact same spot as where her strange terror had occurred. The two hikers were both men under thirty, the weather was warm and they had just spent a night on the highest ridge which they wrote about in their diaries.
Their bodies were found within a a few meters of each other sprawled with their faces downward as if they had fallen while running in fright. The doctor performed a post-mortem on both of the bodies and claimed he had never seen healthier corpses in his career.
He said there was not a thing wrong with either man except that their hearts had stopped. He named the cause of death as heart failure but was sure they had died of fright.
Theories
Harpur suggested the experiences could be caused by the ancient god Pan. He is the god of woodlands, glens and fields. He is said to be half human half goat in appearance. He is associated with sexuality and fertility. Some Christians have associated pan with the Devil or Satan and this is why the devil is sometimes depicted as a horned goat man. Author Robert Ogilvie Crombie claims to have interacted with Pan in several locations around Scotland.
Some UFO enthusiasts claim that such experiences can be caused by alien abduction. The aliens are said to be able to wipe the memories of what has taken place leaving just a blind sense of panic.
Others claim spirits of the dead roam the woods and make their presence known by instill a great sense of fear and panic in visitors.
Infrasound: sometimes very low pitched sounds that are too low to be heard by humans are present in certain locations and cause people to experience a sense of panic without being able to identify what is causing it.
We think the answer could be all or none of the above. Almost every type of paranormal encounter causes a sense of fear and panic in the experiencer.
If you liked this article you may be interested in learning about fog that isn’t just fog or other spooky creatures in the forest: the Hawaiian Night Marchers.
Further Reading:
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