Observations placeholder
Route march in war
Identifier
002527
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
During the First World War, Corporal Johnstone and his fellow soldiers had marched all day and night with only a half hour break. They were in extreme danger and were hungry, sleep deprived and mentally exhausted. The combination of hunger, fear, frenetic exercise and sleep deprivation produced some interesting results………….
A description of the experience
Lance Corporal A Johnstone [Royal Engineers] – London Evening News August 11th 1915
I remember turning to my chums in the ranks and saying ‘Thank God! We are not far off Paris now. Look at the French cavalry’. They too saw them quite plainly, but on getting closer, to our surprise the horsemen vanished and gave place to banks of white mist, with clumps of trees and bushes dimly showing through them
The source of the experience
Ordinary personConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
Shared hallucinationSymbols
Science Items
Activities and commonsteps
Activities
Overloads
Frenetic exerciseNutritional deprivation
Overwhelming fear and terror
Sleep deprivation, insomnia and mental exhaustion
War.