Feelings of panic after visiting Highgate Cemetery

I thought you were going to say you looked around and screamed like that woman at the Sistine Chapel. 😂

Never been to Highgate, but other cemeteries and graveyards I've visited have a similar feeling. Very atmospheric. I get a similar thing going into old churches, particularly peaceful rural ones I might come across on long country walks. Something about the timelessness of going in, all the people that have gone before, all the emotions that have happened, and the graves or building just quietly absorbing it all.

@RavelTrioyou can not want to live forever, yet still find this unnerving. I adore cemeteries; the peace, relatively few people (above ground at least!) and tonnes of squirrels, but can see the visual of skulls, artifacts and things like that being disturbing.

You should visit the Roman catacombs that really leaves you feeling weird, like death reaching back thousands of years.

I love it there, and find the total opposite, really serene and peaceful, it's my favourite place in London. It must be horrible to have the feelings you do, certainly other places have made me feel like that. I hate Avebury.

Years ago I took a group of year 10s to Highgate, we were stood looking a Karls big bronze bust, and our art teacher, not the brightest, who was on the trip blurted out "he doesn't look a very funny chap considering all those funny films he made with his brothers"😂

The ghost of Marx haunts us all

I remember Abney Park as being very cruise-y towards evening…

This one is fantastic to visit when open

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilmorey_Mausoleum

Its a one off mausoleum in a housing estate, the big house it belonged to having long gone, stunning little building in the neo-egyptian style with yellow glass star shaped windows in the roof.

It was built by a chap for him and his mistress, who lie in fabulous velvet covered caskets with gilded brass decoration the wife is buried outside in a hole!

I went on a guided walk with my old workplace as part of an away day that included walking through a similar cemetery in London. This was on a bright summers day with plenty of people around and yet I had an overwhelming sense of not being comfortable, almost overwhelmed by it all. I do not believe in ghosts in the traditional sense, I don’t believe that anyone in the afterlife comes back to deliberately scare or spook someone, but I think it’s normal to sometimes feel an overwhelming sense of what has passed in places like this.

Try and take comfort that nothing there will have been trying to scare you. It is likely an indication that you are an empathetic person who picks up on energy, not even necessarily that of any afterlife, just a sense of the life that has passed. Try and think of it as a good thing about yourself, that you are able to sit with this feeling and acknowledge that you are able to feel an energy that not everyone is capable (or interested) in experiencing.

I adore highgate, and if there is still space when I go I'd love to be buried there, costs a bit c£18K, but its in my will to do first if space available!

I love the miniature architecture of the mausoleums and catacombs - bit more classy than direct cremation!

Have you been to Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris? I got locked in one evening, that was an experience.

Because that’s ok. It’s happened to everyone who’s ever lived. Because eternal life like with Swift’s Struldbruggs is a terrible idea.

Not for 20 years. Are some of the ancient graves still half open? Beautiful place though

Anyone been to Nunhead cemetery in South London? That’s a really old one as well.

I do get it - I felt similar for a long time after visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum and seeing all the 'bodies' which are just holes left behind. I also can't deal with mummies even though skeletons are ok. It's too much like actual people.

My mum felt haunted by memories of that place.

Keep meaning to go to Abney Park, thanks for the reminder. Plenty of my ancestors are buried there.

I love that cemetery but I don't go inside the catacombs with all the coffins as it's too creepy for me. Happy to wander around the rest!

To be honest, I find the realisation that one day we’ll be naught but dust quite comforting. Puts a lot of day to day troubles into perspective - at the end of the day, none of them matter.

Never been to Highgate but it’s on my list.

It’s an incredibly atmospheric place. I’m terrified of death and feel sick thinking about it but I find cemeteries really interesting and found Highgate peaceful and beautiful with the woodland setting.

When I lived nearby I loved Highgate Cemetery. I loved the peace and quiet. I’m not one with deep feelings about death or the afterlife though….. I just enjoy the quietness of a cemetery, so rare in London. A place to reflect. I loved Abney Park too.

I've been to Highgate Cemetery, but wouldn't wander round alone, particularly on the west side, which is where the catacombs are. It does have vibes. And yes, it is sobering, being reminded of what we all must come to, in the end.