I visited Montana for the first time in June of 2004. I would later move there from my home state of CT and live in both Eastern and Western parts of the state for 9 years.
My friend picked me up from the Billings airport and suggested that we see the battlefield. He was a bit of a history buff. When we arrived, we were driving along the road past the visitors' center. I got very quiet, suddenly feeling very heavy and serious. We got to a point in the road that looked down some rolling prairie and we decided to get out and walk. My friend, a Montana native, didn't seem to be disturbed very much, but as I looked down into the coulees and saw the white stone markers bunched together closely, I became overwhelmed with terror and a deep sadness. I knew that the people who died in that area had been trying to hide and were unable to defend themselves. I could almost see it. I tried telling this to my friend and he seemed perplexed. I started to cry and couldn't stop. It alarmed my friend and he decided we should leave. We left the park and pulled over for a few minutes and I started to calm down. I couldn't explain my experience to someone that had never felt those things and it was a little embarrassing.
It is not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last that I encounter an intense residual like that. A word of advice to any empaths or sensitives visiting the battlefield: ground yourself well before entering or prepare to be overwhelmed with the emotions of those unfortunate souls, both native American and non.
I am interested to read any similar stories that you have. Please share!
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Such an interesting story! I never really knew what an empath was until I started reading here at this website maybe a year or so ago. One reason I started seeking out more information are some experiences I've had at the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield, a national park just NW of Atlanta.
I never thought twice about some of the feelings I've had since childhood in various places, until I started really noting the presence of the spiritual world through other situations, specifically I've had a lot of people in my family pass away and I feel they've contacted me at various times. It's like you don't get it at first, and then the more and more you notice things are "weird" the more you start getting it... Bit by bit like a snowball builds if you never literally came face to face with a ghost, but just had these "things" happen over years... Things that suggest a spiritual experience.
Anyway, as a kid moving around on Army bases, many of them historic, I had "feelings" and was scared on many instances, and that was just never my personality. For example, at Ft. Sill, OK, we visited the jail cell that once held Geronimo. I remember, 50 years ago, it was almost a panicky feeling I had as I walked in. Even though there was a mannequin and really beautiful examples of Indian handiwork like a headdress, clothing and moccasins (which I was REALLY into back then), I could NOT stay and look at them, despite my interest and curiosity. I had to get OUT of there! I know my parents thought it was the mannequin and small, dark cell that scared me, but it was the unfamiliar feeling INSIDE me that scared me!
As I got older I never thought much about any of that, just thought I had a good intuition about places. Driving through small towns, etc. Atchison, KS was a town we drove through a lot on our way to our grandparents' house, and I remember being scared to death of that little town, even though we just drove right through and never stopped. It's been only recently getting attention as a very haunted place... Which now makes perfect sense to me.
But the real experiences I've had are at the battlefield. I used to be a runner and there are ten miles of trails there, but I never felt good about running there, always mighty uncomfortable despite the serenity and great trail conditions. I would NEVER go alone. Then a couple years ago, my son and I sort of accidentally got some amazing EVPs (I wrote the story but not sure how to actually find the link). At some point, my husband and I were out to dinner one night near there and, after a couple glasses of wine, decided to stop by and take another look at the Illinois Monument, which is where I made my recording. He's a huge skeptic. Anyway, it was dusk, and there were a lot of people there walking. We sat on a bench and nothing seemed amiss, though I felt something touch my hair from behind (didn't realize at the time it was a touch, I thought it was a bug). We walked down the hill and stood there. Husband thought he smelled "wet canvas tents" (he's a Marine). I didn't smell anything, and not sure I'd recognize it anyway even though I was a Girl Scout Leader, haha. But then he'd had enough and decided to walk up the hill, while I stayed behind for a moment of quiet. Then, walking back up the hill (called the Dead Angle, where more than 3,000 Yankees died in a forlorn hope assault against heavily entrenched Confederates) I started to get REALLY out of breath. Ok, I kept walking, thinking "wow, how out of shape have I gotten?!" But then my anxiety went through the roof, my heart started pounding and I was so out of breath, I had to stop and lean on a post. The feeling almost knocked me to my knees, and it was almost exactly the spot that is described as where so many men lost their lives, almost at the very top, yet where the gunfire was the thickest. It took me a few minutes to recover and make my way down the path to the parking lot where my husband was waiting for me. I wish to this day he had seen me, because he sort of looks at me like I'm nuts when I describe it. But I feel somewhat like I bet you would feel during such an assault.
I went back a few months later when I heard there was going to be a guided walking tour. Went on it and never felt a thing, except the normal level of empathy. I still don't know what to do with this, so thank you for writing your story and inviting us to comment. It's nice not to feel like the only one who's experienced this! All the best.