Sep 28, 2026 · 53 min · 17 segments
Shortly after moving into a new home on a large plot of land, John notices a T-post with no indication of what it might be marking. When he starts seeing a ghostly figure showing itself on his…
I mentioned before that this one really unnerves me because I spend so much of my own time doing random projects in my garage and in my yard.
It's kind of a meditative thing for me and hours can slip by without me realizing it.
The idea of something startling me out of that flow state is very terrifying to me.
Now, I am sure some people may have been shaking their head while listening to the part where John decided to dig up the grave after finding out what it was and then halfway through sort of snapping out of it like, wait, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? From afar, it could seem like such an obviously bad idea, but I think things are a little different when it's on your own land.
I understand not only the curiosity, but also the instinct to want to dig when you encounter a literal X marking the spot.
In an older episode of Otherworld, I spoke to an archaeologist who told me how many burial sites are scattered across our land way more than any of us could imagine whether or not those burial sites are documented.
And beyond that, I was recently reading about how during the Civil War and many wars before it, it was incredibly uncommon for a family to be able to bury the body of their loved one who died in battle unless they lived really close to the battlegrounds.
Most of the bodies were buried on the battlegrounds in shallow mass graves or left on the battlefield itself.
And back then, even proper burials were commonly done on people's own property in their backyard.
And if you ask me, that metal post that John found was probably not put there by the person who originally buried this body.
I would have to guess that it was probably put there by somebody who previously owned this land, maybe somebody who went through something very similar to John and decided to mark this grave for whoever came later on.
No matter the case, I like the way that John was able to make peace with whatever it was that seemed to exist in the woods on his property out by that post.
This place may be John's farm now, but it was many other things before he came along, and I think John being able to cohabitate with whatever this thing is, is a pretty fair bargain.
I mentioned before that this one really unnerves me because I spend so much of my own time doing random projects in my garage and in my yard.
It's kind of a meditative thing for me and hours can slip by without me realizing it.
The idea of something startling me out of that flow state is very terrifying to me.
Now, I am sure some people may have been shaking their head while listening to the part where John decided to dig up the grave after finding out what it was and then halfway through sort of snapping out of it like, wait, what am I doing? Why am I doing this? From afar, it could seem like such an obviously bad idea, but I think things are a little different when it's on your own land.
I understand not only the curiosity, but also the instinct to want to dig when you encounter a literal X marking the spot.
In an older episode of Otherworld, I spoke to an archaeologist who told me how many burial sites are scattered across our land way more than any of us could imagine whether or not those burial sites are documented.
And beyond that, I was recently reading about how during the Civil War and many wars before it, it was incredibly uncommon for a family to be able to bury the body of their loved one who died in battle unless they lived really close to the battlegrounds.
Most of the bodies were buried on the battlegrounds in shallow mass graves or left on the battlefield itself.
And back then, even proper burials were commonly done on people's own property in their backyard.
And if you ask me, that metal post that John found was probably not put there by the person who originally buried this body.
I would have to guess that it was probably put there by somebody who previously owned this land, maybe somebody who went through something very similar to John and decided to mark this grave for whoever came later on.
No matter the case, I like the way that John was able to make peace with whatever it was that seemed to exist in the woods on his property out by that post.
This place may be John's farm now, but it was many other things before he came along, and I think John being able to cohabitate with whatever this thing is, is a pretty fair bargain.
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