John Sabol
Battlefield Hauntscape introduces a new field survey approach to unearth the patterns of ghostly phenomenon on a battlefield. Both residual and interactive presence can be isolated and separately distinguished using this new methodology. This technique is based on the K.O.C.O.A. (key terrain, observation, cover and concealment, obstacles, and avenues of approach), a military strategy of terrain analysis that is still used at West Point. In ghost research, K.O.C.O.A. is used to identify the locations of potential paranormal phenomenon. From the located nodes of discontinuous anomalies, the ghostly drama is unearthed through a performance-based excavation process. The Gettysburg battlefield is used to illustrate the dynamics of this approach. The author suggests that the K.O.C.O.A. survey is a more accurate and scientific method of documenting battlefield ghost phenomena than the more subjective accounts of hauntings, characteristic of most books that recount encounters with the Gettysburg ghosts.
John Sabol has been participating in (and directing) scientific field investigations since 1969. He has worked in England, Germany, Mexico, and throughout the United States. He has extensive field experience at Gettysburg, and has published a history of the Gettysburg hauntings,
Gettysburg Unearthed: The Excavation of a Haunted History. He is a former professor of inter-cultural studies, with 11 years of teaching experience in Mexico. He is the author of two other books,
Ghost Excavator and
Ghost Culture. He has an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology, and a B.A. in Sociology. He currently resides in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania with his daughter, Melissa. For more information about his books and investigations, please refer to his websites,
www.ghostexcavator.com and
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeoqapc/ghostexcavator.
The Significance of Presence: The Battlefield Ghost
In order to understand ghosts (as presence) on a "haunted" battlefield, it is necessary to define significance. Significance is intertwined with cultural resource management of those sites considered important (be they historical, symbolic, or, in the case of Gettysburg, haunted). Yet, this importance is a perception that is centered in the "eyes of the beholder", and this includes those who may still be doing the haunting.
This is significant: why do we need ghosts at battlefields to remind us of their historical and/or cultural significance? And why do certain individuals become these perceived ghosts? "Millions" have died on battlefields through the centuries, yet we do not have "millions" of ghosts (or do we-?). What makes certain battlefields "ghostly"?
All battlefields are "haunted", containing the residual memories of what happened there (perceived, imagined, or contemplated). Yet, not all battlefields contain ghostly presence....
What is needed to understand the significance of a "haunted" battlefield, and the presence of "ghosts", directly focuses on the issue of a problem-oriented research design. Such an approach has not been a primary consideration of past ghost research and field investigations, in the vast majority of cases....
The significance of a haunted battlefield with ghostly presence involves a re-assessment of the existing data of sensory encounters (type and context), the development of a set of pre-investigative research questions, the analysis of the uniqueness (or redundancy) of the historical observations and recordings, and the current state of theory and knowledge about the investigative questions that are the most essential in determining significance on a "haunted" battlefield. It is also the bringing together of a consensus, among investigators and the community at large, about what aspects of a perceived "haunted" battlefield are worthy of investigation....
It is determining whether the search for battlefield ghosts is cultural resource management of an "endangered" entity (and not a tourist commodity), and what constitutes a true "heritage, worthy of significance. What is sorely needed is a self-reflective approach that gives equal importance to the "visitor", for whom the site is merely historically-significant....
Edward Linenthal, in his book, Sacred Ground:Americans and their Battlefields, describes these landscapes as a "sacred patriotic space, where memories of the transformative power of war and the sacrificial heroism of the warrior are preserved" (1991:3). Does this "sacred patriotic space" translate significantly to the phenomenon of interactive ghostly presence? Should it?....
The investigation of ghostly presence on the battlefield can be significant. This is not "ghost hunting", or an immersed form of tourist activity. It is the archaeology (and ghost excavation) of the continuing manifestational remains of the historical present....
