In the aftermath of the Great War, people from across the British Isles and Dominion nations read prophecies about the coming new millennium, experimented with seances, and claimed to see the ghosts of their loved ones in dreams and in photographs. On the battlefields, soldiers had premonitions and attributed their survival to angelic, psychic, or spiritual forces. These experiences contrast sharply with the legacy of the Great War and modernity in general as a disenchanting experience. What were ghosts and psychics doing amidst a war involving tanks, airplanes, submarines, chemical weapons, and machine guns? This talk narrates previously undocumented abnormal experiences to challenge popular myths about the Great War.

 

 

Kyle Falcon is a historian of the British Empire whose research focuses on the role of spiritualism and psychical research during the era of the Great War. He received his MA and PhD from Wilfrid Laurier University. His book, Haunted Britain: Spiritualism, Psychical Research and the Great War was released by Manchester University Press in July 2023.