GT interview: Gettysburg’s ghost video
The following interview was done in regards to a very interesting video that has been circulating the internet for the last few years. The ghosts of Gettysburg. This video might be some of the best visual evidence of that ghosts exist.
I wrote a short article on the video that you can read Here .
I’ve been trying to reach the Underwoods for quite some time now. It wasn’t until last month that I finally tracked down an email address in which someone responded. It was Delia Underwood. She was present at the time of the filming and witnessed these lights. To my surprise, the History’s Channel new show called MonsterQuest beat me to the Underwood’s and managed to get a roughly put together account of what happened that day.
Here is the quick interview I did with Delia Underwood: (note: due to Delia’s busy schedule, she managed to only give me a short interview. This is the raw text, not edited)
GT: Delia, I’d like to thank you for taking time for this interview for GhostTheory.com. There has been a lot of talk and speculation of the your “Gettysburg ghost images” video.
Can you start by telling us the exact date (even time of day) this event happened?
DU: IT WAS IN THE EVENING OF OCTOBER 2001.
GT: In a paragraph or two, can you explain to us how the events transpired?
DU: MY HUSBAND AND I WOULD GO TO GETTYSBURG EVERY WEEKEND TO DO FILMING AND TAKING PICTURES IN HOPES OF GETTING SOMETHING ON FILM. WE JUST WENT ON THIS PARTICULAR DAY/EVENING AND WE SET UP THE VIDEIO CAMERA AFTER WE DECIDED WHERE. WE AIMED IT DOWN THE FIELD TOWARD THE FLAT ROCK, THEN WE JUST STARTED TO FILM IN HOPES OF GETTING SOMETHING.
GT: Who’s voices do we hear in the video, and did they all see the lights?
DU: YOU HEAR MY VOICE, MY HUSBAND TOM AND MY SON JUSTIN. WHAT LITES ARE YOU REFERING TOO?
IF YOU MEAN AT THE BEGINING, YOU COULD SEE THEM TO THE NAKED EYE AND ON THE VIDEO. THEY LOOK LIKE GUNFIRE IN RAPID FIRE. THEN I SAW THE FIGURES AND SHOWED MY HUSBAND.
GT: To your best recollection, what is the location where the lights were witnessed?
DU: THE LIGHTS WERE NEAR A BUSH ABOUT 15FT FROM THE FLAT ROCK.
GT: In your own words, can you describe for us the lights that you saw? Did it look like the lights just dissipated? did they have any shape or figure to them? any sounds?
DU: NO SOUNDS
THE LIGHTS OR FIGURES TO ME WERE OF SOILDERS MARCHING UP IN THE TREES, IT ONLY LASTED A FEW SECONDS AND THEN THEY DISAPEARED.
GT: Is there more footage that has not yet been released?
DU: NO THAT WAS ALL WE GOT
GT: What is your stance on the theories that this could be pockets of Methane gas being released? or that these are lights from nearby vehicles that reflect off the mist/fog?
DU: NOT FROM ANY GASES, THIS IS A BATTLEFIELD,
WE THOUGHT ABOUT THE LIGHTS FROM OTHER VEHICLES AND WE TESTED THAT THEORY AND IT DID NOT WORK.
THERE WAS NO FOG THAT NITE AND IT WAS CLEAR
GT: Have you gone back to the same place to try to capture more footage?
DU: NO CAUSE WE MOVED TO FLORIDA
GT: What are some of the incorrect facts that we read on the web about your footage that you’d like to address?
DU: THE FOOTAGE WAS TAKEN AT THE TRIANGLER FIELD IN GETTYSBURG BATTLEFIELD, GETTYSBURG, PA OCT 2001
I must say that this video is very interesting. I have never seen anything like it. From a skeptical point of view, it is somewhat similar of videos of lights reflecting off a natural gas. It could very well be that the headlights of passing cars could have illuminated the gas/fog and caused these reflections that seem to be moving in a certain direction. According to Delia Underwood, the road were cars travel on is too far away for it to be reflecting headlights. I would have to agree with her on this. If you examine the video, you can see that these lights move in different directions and elevations. What are your thoughts?
Written by Javier Ortega - javier@ghosttheory.com
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I think instead of just considering that these are ghosts, we might want to consider that what is actually occurring is a natural unknown phenomenon where if certain conditions occur, we are able to get partial glimpses into past events as they are occurring. This would also explain, why people traditionally report ghosts in old buildings, and typically only at night. Meaning, since the vantage-point does not provide a solid image, then low light would be needed to see it. Scientific string theory might possibly support this hypothesis, I might add, by it indicating that all events occur simultaneously, and that matter exists on twisted membranes…
In short, I think we should think about putting more resources into determine the corresponding natural conditions that events like above occur in. If we can understand them better, then we might find at some point in the future that it is possible to force these conditions manually, and create partial viewing windows into nearly any point in history…
timjones0674,
In a way, I agree with what you say. I mean, images like these are more or less labeled as “residual hauntings”. Where past events are incredibly projected into thin air by certain environmental conditions. I’m sure Gettysburg would be a mecca in the United States for these kind of apparitions.
I think it would be smart for the government or other private and public entities to fund these types of research. Much of the funding that the Paranormal research has had has been from private individuals. Mainstream science does not have a place for ghosts.
Very interesting footage to say the least. Though I’m not 100% convinced it is a ghost, I’d have to say it at least encourages more active research in the paranormal field.
Thanks for this Javier.
I believe the “ghost” industry in Gettysburg has gotten to be out of hand. It appears as if every other merchant is offering some sort of “ghost walk”. It would be great to see more folks educating tourists about the battle rather than all this “ghost” baloney. ~G
garyjd, i agree with you.
alas, history and science don’t sell like ghost stories do.
i wonder how long it will be before “psychics” and ghost hunters are traipsing all over other more recent sites of mass tragic death — like ground zero.
oh wait, chip coffey was already there – not too long after 9/11 -not too long after he quit his travel industry job to pursue being a “psychic” full time.
Fate and Fortune, a European magazine, featured an article about Chip’s visit to the ruins of the World Trade Center with the widow of a man who died there on 9-11.
never heard of that magazine?? me neither.
just google it. it’s pretty funny.
bioluminescence, thats all this is, I would think!
fireflies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBgq-_NJCl0&feature=related
that really really REALLY looks like something walking up a trail to me.
I’ve seen this video multiple times. I have never been all that impressed with it. To me, it just looks like a group of very much living people walking up a trail. There’s one person that comes out a little clearer than the rest and it looks like someone wearing a light colored T-shirt. While this does not mean it couldn’t be “ghosts” of people that have passed on in more modern times I suppose, I’m most certain that it isn’t ghosts of Civil War era soldiers. I do historical reenactment and one of the time periods I’ve been reenacting for almost 20 years is the Civil War Era. I’m very familiar with the different uniforms on both sides and nothing I see in this video reminds me of Civil War soldiers’ uniforms. My own gut feeling is that this is just a video of living people hiking up a trail.
It appears to me that, if this is actual, it seems residual. The anomolies appear and move in the same locations and patterns. As for the small flashes of light, I’d easily dismiss them as lightning bugs. The theory that these are merely hikers on a path, I would argue againts. The movement seems to repetitive and simular. Unless…
the videographer had some friends to walk in repetitve patterns behind the tree line.