Strange Phenomena at Ancient Sites

Ancient monuments are usually approached through what we can see. We look at the stones, study their construction, learn about the people who built them and try to understand how the monuments fitted into the landscape. But there is another aspect of ancient places that has attracted attention for generations: what people feel and detect when they spend time among the stones.

There is a long tradition of people believing that certain ancient sites possess particular energies or forces. Earth Mysteries investigators have spent decades exploring these ideas, sometimes using instruments in an attempt to identify measurable effects. We have experienced some of these phenomena ourselves, and those experiences have made us curious about what may be happening at ancient sites that we cannot yet fully explain.

One of these phenomena occurred at the King’s Men Stone Circle at the Rollright Stones. We have already written about this in detail, including the reported spiral within the circle and the history of investigations into unusual phenomena at the monument. But the Rollright Stones were not the only place where we experienced something that was difficult to explain.

In this article, we want to bring together some of these phenomena and look at them from the perspective that matters most to us: what we actually felt, what was happening around us at the time, what traditions exist around these places, and what we might still not understand about the forces that can be present at ancient sites.

An Unusual Sensation at Avebury

We have visited Avebury many times, and it is quite common for me to experience tingling in my hands when walking around the wider Avebury landscape. On one visit, the sensation became extremely strong when we walked on Overton Down. The tingling in my hands was much more intense than I had experienced elsewhere at Avebury.

I have no way of knowing exactly what was causing the sensation, but to me it felt like a particularly strong energy in that part of the landscape. It was one of the strongest physical sensations I have experienced around Avebury, and it made me pay much closer attention to the possibility that different areas of an ancient landscape may have different energetic qualities.

This later became relevant at the King’s Men Stone Circle. When I experienced a similar tingling there, I recognised the sensation immediately because I already knew it from Avebury.

The Energy of the Central Menhir

Our experience at the Dolmen da Oração Complex in Brazil was considerably more intense.

Before starting the Dólmen da Oração Trail on the Galheta Hill, we spoke with the site keeper about the stones. He suggested that we place our foreheads against the Central Menhir and spend a moment feeling its energy. The Central Menhir is an isolated stone further along the trail, away from the main group of stones.

We followed the trail up to the stone complex. The atmosphere there immediately felt unusual to me. It was an overcast day, but the air seemed completely still, and the whole area felt strangely calm in a way that I found difficult to describe.

It was there that we noticed an azure jay. The bird did not seem particularly concerned by our presence. It stayed nearby, watching us as we moved around the site. Its presence seemed almost like a keeper of the place.

The azure jay has a special place in the traditional beliefs of Indigenous peoples in southern Brazil, appearing in ancestral stories and carrying spiritual significance. We did not know this at the time, but learning about these traditions later added another interesting dimension to the encounter.

After spending some time at the dolmen complex, we continued along the trail to the Central Menhir. We followed the site keeper's suggestion and each placed our forehead against the surface of the stone.

I began to feel extremely dizzy. This was not a brief moment of light-headedness that disappeared when I moved away from the stone. The dizziness was intense and continued for several days.

I eventually contacted the site keeper and described what had happened. He told me that I had probably experienced a strong discharge of energy from the stone.

I decided to try grounding myself. I went to the beach and walked barefoot through the sand, with the intention of stabilising the energy in my body. After doing this, the dizziness disappeared.

I had never expected anything like this to happen when we visited the Dolmen da Oração Complex. We had gone there simply to explore the stones, with no expectation of having such an intense experience.

It made me realise how important it can be to pay attention to what we feel at ancient sites. We may not always understand what is happening, but noticing these changes gives us something to wonder about.

The Threshold at the King and Queen Stones

The King and Queen Stones stand on Bredon Hill in Worcestershire. They are natural rock formations with a fissured passage between them, and the gap has a long history of local traditions. People with illnesses were said to crawl through the opening, while children were passed through it as a means of promoting health. The stones were also associated with pregnancy and protection from witchcraft.

Out of curiosity, we decided to go there and check the stones out for ourselves.

On the hill, we could hear traffic from the nearby roads and other sounds from the surrounding landscape. But as soon as we stepped into the gap between the stones, all of the noise disappeared. It was complete silence. It was almost as though we had stepped across a threshold. That is the only word that really captures how it felt to us.

Unlike the tingling at Avebury or the dizziness at the Central Menhir, this was not primarily a sensation in the body. It was a change in the way we experienced the space.

Neither of us expected anything to happen when we stood between the stones. Yet for those few moments, the space between them felt completely different from the landscape around it. We stood there wondering what could have caused such a striking change.

Paying Attention to Ancient Places

One thing has changed for us since we began noticing these phenomena. We pay much more attention to what happens when we are at an ancient site.

We notice changes in our bodies and in the way a place feels around us. We do not always know what causes them, and we do not think there is a single explanation that applies to every situation.

Some of these phenomena may eventually be explained by environmental factors. Others may require us to think differently about what we mean by energy at ancient sites. At this point, we simply do not know.

That uncertainty does not make the phenomena less interesting. If anything, it makes us more curious.

For us, the important thing is not simply trying to explain what happens at ancient sites. What interests us is the bigger mystery: "What is it about certain ancient places that can make us experience them so differently from the landscapes around them?"

We do not have an answer yet. But these experiences have made us more attentive to the places we visit, and more curious about what we might be missing when we only look at the stones.

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