Ghost
(religion, spiritualism, and occult)A ghost is an apparition or vision of a spirit of the dead; “apparition” is the term preferred by parapsychologists. Ghosts are found in the folklore, art, and literature of all nations. Throughout England, there are haunted sites galore where numerous witnesses have seen a ghost or ghosts … single individuals to whole armies from the past. Houses, castles, gardens, woods, and crossroads are sites for these hauntings. Frederick W. H. Myers, founder of the Society for Psychical Research, defined a ghost as, “A manifestation of persistent personal energy, or as an indication that some kind of force is being exercised after death which is in some way connected with a person previously known on earth.”
It is not always the ghost of a deceased person which is witnessed. There are records of ghosts of animals and even of inanimate objects such as coaches, trains, and airplanes. It is said that a belief in ghosts grows out of the universal human need for some assurance of survival of death. Ancestor worship is one form of religious awareness that ties in with a belief in ghosts. In some areas, these ancestral ghosts take on the power of minor gods and it is felt that unless steps are taken to propitiate them, they can be harmful to the living. Generally speaking, however, ghosts are not able to harm the living. Their appearance may be frightening, especially in its unexpectedness, but there are virtually no records of actual physical hurt coming from an apparition.
Ghosts are seldom, if ever, floating sheeted figures of the cartoon variety. Some early forms were of the dead as they had been buried in their winding sheets, but the majority seem to appear much as they had in life, fully and appropriately clothed. Ghosts are occasionally harbingers of death. It is said that Josephine’s ghost appeared to Napoleon some days before he died, to signal his coming death, and a Black Friar supposedly appeared to members of Lord Byron’s family for the same reason. A phantom drummer—the once-young lover of the Lady Airlie—drums to signal an approaching death in the family of the Ogilvys, Earls of Airlie, Scotland.
Many ghosts seem to haunt particular places because of some tragedy or traumatic event that occurred to them either at death or just prior to it, while others are there because of extreme happiness known in those places. This signals the fact that the ghost is actually a spirit that either is unaware of its own death or is unwilling to admit to it. Many Spiritualist groups form what are called Rescue Circles, designed specifically to contact such spirits and to persuade them to move on, as they need to do.
Many ghosts and apparitions have been photographed. As with much in the general field of parapsychology and Spiritualism, it is easy to fake such photographs. However, there are a very large number of photographs that have been examined and verified by photographic experts. One example is the photograph taken by the vicar of Newby Church in Yorkshire, England, that shows a cowled figure standing to the right of the altar. The “Brown Lady of Raynham Hall” in England has been photographed descending the main staircase. A photograph taken of Isabella Houg of Newark, New Jersey, in 1922, showed an accompanying figure of her long dead uncle when the picture was developed. Mr. and Mrs. Chinnery of Ipswich, England, had been to visit the grave of Mrs. Chinnery’s deceased mother and, as they were preparing to leave, Mrs. Mabel Chinnery—on impulse—turned and took a photograph of her husband sitting in their family car. When the photograph was developed it showed the figure of her deceased mother sitting in the back seat of the car. All of these photographs have been proven not to have been faked. Rarely, however, is the ghost actually seen by the photographer. It is only on development of the picture that the apparition is discovered.
The psychical researcher Harry Price referred to Borley Rectory in Suffolk, as “the most haunted house in England.” For forty years Price investigated ghosts and hauntings. He founded the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, now part of the University of London. He claimed that the large nineteenth century house built by the Reverend Henry Bull in the 1860s was the scene of more ghostly activity than anywhere else. It certainly did have the ghost of a nun, a phantom coach, writing that appeared on walls, poltergeist activity, and more. At séances held by Price at the house, there were rappings, apparitions, and pebbles flying through the air, keys pushed out of locks, and a whole host of similar phenomena. Although the vast majority of reported ghost sightings can be explained away, a small percentage cannot.
Sources:
Guiley, Rosemary Ellen: The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. New York: Facts On File, 1992
Myers, Frederick W. H.: Human Personality and Its Survival After Bodily Death. London: Longmans, 1903
Price, Harry: The Most Haunted House in England. London: Longmans, Green, 1940
Smyth, Frank: The Supernatural: Ghosts and Poltergeists. London: Aldus, 1975
Steiger, Brad: Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 2003 Stemman, Roy: The Supernatural: Spirits and Spirit Worlds. London: Aldus, 1975
Thurston, Rev. Herbert: Ghosts and Poltergeists. London: Regnery, 1950
Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–1898)
see Eglinton, William
The Spirit Book © 2006 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.
Ghost
Akakyevich, Akakiihis ghost steals coats off people’s backs. [Russ. Lit.: Gogol The Overcoat]
the murdered prince returns as a ghost to frustrate the usurper and proclaim the true heir. [Br. Lit.: Walpole The Castle of Otranto in Magill I, 124]
appears as ghost to lover. [Br. Lit.: “Alonzo the Brave” in Walsh Modern, 14]
ghost returns to the Spanish court to learn of the events that followed his death. [Br. Drama: The Spanish Tragedy in Magill II, 990]
a spectral army of angels that supposedly came between German and British forces (1914). [Br. and Fr. Hist.: Wallechinsky, 447]
his ghost appears to Macbeth at a banquet, sitting in Macbeth’s own seat. [Br. Drama: Shakespeare Macbeth]
haunter of cemeteries; attendant of Shiva. [Hindu Myth.: Parrinder, 45]
ghost of witty first wife returns to mock her husband and his second wife. [Br. Drama: Noel Coward Blithe Spirit in On Stage, 236]
warns Brutus that he and Caesar will meet, again at Phillipi. [Br. Lit.: Shakespeare Julius Caesar]
after haunting an English house for three centuries, disappeared forever when new American owners refused to take him seriously. [Br. Lit.: Oscar Wilde “The Canterville Ghost”]
meek little ghost who desires only to make friends. [Am. Comics: “Casper the Friendly Ghost” in Horn, 162]
Webster defends his client before a jury of the ghosts of American villains. [Am. Lit.: Haydn & Fuller, 382]
said to bring great acting success to those who see it. [Br. Folklore: Wallechinsky, 446]
supposedly invaded the house of Rev. Samuel Wesley. [Am. Folklore: Wallechinsky, 446]
ghost ship off Cape of Good Hope; sighting it forbodes disaster. [Folklore: Brewer Note-Book, 335]
New England cottage haunted by the spirit of its 19th-century owner. [Am. TV: Terrace]
merry Scottish ghost follows his castle when it is moved to America. [Am. Cinema: Halliwell]
the itinerant peddler returns to the property where he was murdered. [Folklore: Wallechinsky, 446]
the Scrooge’s first monitor; spirit presenting past. [Br. Lit.: A Christmas Carol]
the Scrooge’s second monitor; spirit presenting present. [Br. Lit.: A Christmas Carol]
Scrooge’s third monitor; spirit presenting future. [Br. Lit.: A Christmas Carol]
the appears to the prince, states he was murdered by Claudius and demands revenge. [Br. Lit.: Hamlet]
spirit and step of Lady Morbury Dedlock. [Br. Lit.: Bleak House]
ghostly bearer of evil tidings. [Br. Lit.: Waverley]
phantom who scares Ichabod Crane out of his wits. [Am. Lit.: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories]
formless spirit of learning. [Ger. Lit.: Faust]
ghosts who occupy Topper’s house. [TV: “Topper” in Terrace II, 381]
months after her own death and the narrator’s remarriage, she materializes upon the death of his second wife. [Am. Lit.: Poe Ligeia]
the friendly ghost who helps Ebenezer Scrooge become more benevolent. [Br. Lit.: A Christmas Carol]
ghostly black spaniel that haunted Peel Castle. [Br. Folklore: Benét, 649]
terrified by imagined ghosts at the medieval abbey where she is a guest. [Br. Lit.: Northanger Abbey in Benét, 720]
ghost of a woman who died in childbirth. [Scot. Folklore: Briggs, 15–16]
deformed man haunts opera house for vengeance. [Am. Cinema: Halliwell, 562]
mysterious, ghostlike foe of injustice in a mythical African-Asian country. [Am. Comics: Horn, 551]
former lovers return to haunt house. [Am. Lit.: The Turn of the Screw]
visited by the ghosts of all his victims. [Br. Lit.: Shakespeare Richard III]
the ghosts of his ancestors confront the current baronet and change his life. [Br. Opera: Gilbert and Sullivan Ruddigore]
his spirit appears to Saul through the witch of Endor. [O.T.: I Samuel 28:24]
ghost of baby murdered by his mother cannot rest because he is “nameless.” [Br. Folklore: Briggs, 363–364]
house he purchases is haunted by the young couple who owned it previously and their dog. [Am. Lit., Cin., TV: Topper in Halliwell, 718]
ghost rumored to have appeared at various times in French history, such as before deaths of Henry IV and Napoleon. [Fr. History: Wallechinsky, 445]
several people supposedly saw Abraham Lincoln’s ghost there. [Am. Folklore: Wallechinsky, 447]
ghost seen in different castles and palaces belonging to Prussia’s royal family. [Prussian Folklore: Brewer Hand-book, 1207]
of Avenel “a tutelary spirit.” [Br. Lit.: The Monastery, Brewer Handbook, 1208]
of Ireland the domestic spirit of a family; intimates approaching death with shrieks [Irish Folklore: Brewer Handbook, 1208]
spectral hunter with dogs who frequents the Black Forest. [Ger. Folklore: Brewer Handbook, 1207]
Allusions—Cultural, Literary, Biblical, and Historical: A Thematic Dictionary. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.