I've only read lightly on the historical literature of ghosts, but I think TFA has some basic misconceptions. Through most of history, ghost sightings appeared to be of regular people, with the witness only realizing later that it was a ghost. The conception of ghosts having ethereal appearance appears to have become widespread in the late 19th century.
There are accounts of spirits/ ghosts much earlier than 19th c that aren't "regular" people.
In Homer's Odyssey (8th c. BC), while in the underworld Odysseus attempts to hug his mother Anticlea but is unable to do so.
Thrice I sprang towards her, and my heart bade me clasp her, and thrice she flitted from my arms like a shadow or a dream..... “‘My mother, why dost thou not stay for me, who am eager to clasp thee, that even in the house of Hades we two may cast our arms each about the other.... Is this but a phantom (ghost) that august Persephone has sent me, that I may lament and groan the more?
I read that they fade over time. A famous one was a lady in red who appeared in a castle in the UK. Over a couple hundred years of sightings the color if her dress faded from deep red through crimson then pink then finally white.
Roman writers used "umbra" or "shadow"/"shade" as a word for specters, phantoms, ghosts, etc. They had many other words, too, but this is probably closest to how dead apparitions were physically perceived.
for me horror movies with ghosts shown as regular people in foggy daylight (for example the kid in the original Omen) are scarier then the ones that fly at night or have heavy makeups with abnormal bodies etc.
There's another theory I've heard that goes more into what ghosts are, that isn't in the article: They're not spirits, but more like an imprint on reality. This would also explain why so many just repeat the same actions over and over, and to some extent not just clothes but other things that appear in a ghost-like form they'd interact with. The one missing part of this theory is, it should be possible to create such an imprint with someone who is still alive.
> The one missing part of this theory is, it should be possible to create such an imprint with someone who is still alive.
I've read of this idea, it's traditional in some cultures, I just don't remember the name of it. I think it's cognate with ideas of doppelgangers and so forth.
I also think there's often an implicit assumption that whatever it is that causes the "imprint" can only reach a certain necessary magnitude that is commensurate with death or dying.
I feel obliged to note this is not my own perspective on things at all, although I admit I like reading about and thinking about these things sometimes as a kind of psychosocial phenomenon, and think it's worthwhile to engage in metaphysical discussions sometimes just as a kind of check.
The theory ties in with "Morphic resonance", the cool-sounding name of an attempt to rationalise imprints and collective memories among other things.
I don't see the harm in pondering such theories. After all, the fact we're here and living in the universe at all, means there's a whole bunch of things happening behind the scenes we have no idea about. Perhaps one day, "ghost imprints" will be something science can measure. Or other pseudo-science like telepathy or premonitions, may move into actual science with as yet unknown discoveries. I'm not saying will, but they may.
I really wish it was easier to talk about mental disorders. People with (mild?) mental disorders manage to live ordinary lives just fine. I remember listening to one specialist on a radio show who claimed that at least half the population (in one particular developing country) suffered from some kind of mental disorders but nobody comes for treatment because people think of you are getting treatment for any kind of mental disorders, you must have "gone mad" and are therefore completely unreliable and therefore must lose all your licenses, work privileges, family responsibilities etc. So people are scared to come forward and ignorance rules.
I used to be cynical about the existence of ghosts until I saw one. I didn't realise there was such a simple explanation and have wasted the past 15 years of my life thinking otherwise.
If ghosts are the souls of deceased people, unless they were nudists, wouldn't they prefer to wear clothes similar to the ones they used when they were alive?
That is, instead of "ghost-seers dress the ghost", it's the ghost that dresses itself. In fact, that whole paragraph even makes sense once flipped that way:
"[...] ghosts dress themselves, automatically, through unconscious processes. And so we see a ghost in its usual dress because that is the mental picture the ghost has of itself, and this choice of garment is most likely to inspire recognition."
"Is it really so hard to believe? Your clothes are different, the plugs in your arms and head are gone, your hair has changed. Your appearance now is what we call 'residual self-image'. It is the mental projection of your digital self."
Why is the question about clothes? Why not ask why ghosts usually appear wearing skin? Or flesh? I guess these days in common depictions, clothes > skeleton > peeled > nude in terms of frequency. And what about age, or state of injury? It seems more commonly reported that ghosts do not exhibit their fatal injuries, though again it "happens". Or the big question: why should anything be visible at all?
If a ghost is meant to be associated with a spirit or soul, there's no particular reason for them to have any form or be visible at all. But as an exercise in worldbuilding, they can be, and their visual appearance can give all kinds of fascinating clues about their previous existence or the viewers'. I'd rather speculate about that.
When I lived in manhattan I was friends with this hippie spiritual Buddhist woman who was very into reincarnation, she described it as a "glitch in past life memory system". Basically something from the history line accidentally implanted a memory in the current that manifested as the person witnessing a past life component. I always thought that was pretty fun.
When a system has a lot of complexity, it needs a lot of computational resources to be simulated accurately.
When suddenly this complexity is not needed anymore, because the system got "simplified" suddenly. The pockets of available computation diffuse slowly into the environment.
The analog for the scientific person here is like your adaptive grid in the simulation was locally in high resolution because it was needed by the physical process, and suddenly the physical process doesn't need it anymore but the simulation grid stays in high resolution.
When some other high complexity process comes nearby (like another rich soul), it benefits from this increased resolution which usually allows him unconsciously to run his computational wetware in higher gear, like in a form of mildly induced schizophrenia, vivid dreams, or hallucinations.
Brains as general information analyzing devices can perceive the shape of this echo from the past, decoding from the faint ripples the stone that impacted the water.
The mythology of absorbing the essence from the passed is varied across time and places, ranging from soul capturing gems, the fighting to survive against the erosion of time like in Highlander accumulating the energy of your rivals by eating their brain.
Looking at it only as a physical process ("real") will make you miss it. It has to be seen through the lens of the ethereal plane. Information is conserved, but details can be compressed more or less. Degrees of freedom accumulated or used are different things.
I always thought the "white sheet" thing was just about representing funeral wrapping. I found it interesting that the topic goes much deeper than that.
I thought the point of the white sheet trope was that the ghost (whether clothed or not) is invisible, and so they throw a real physical sheet over themselves so they can be seen at all. Although, a ghost that's visible but naked would be just as good justification.
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In Homer's Odyssey (8th c. BC), while in the underworld Odysseus attempts to hug his mother Anticlea but is unable to do so.
Thrice I sprang towards her, and my heart bade me clasp her, and thrice she flitted from my arms like a shadow or a dream..... “‘My mother, why dost thou not stay for me, who am eager to clasp thee, that even in the house of Hades we two may cast our arms each about the other.... Is this but a phantom (ghost) that august Persephone has sent me, that I may lament and groan the more?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shade_(mythology)
Ancient Romans used "umbrae" (shadows) to refer to ghostly spirits, which for me invokes the figures on the wall of Plato's cave
Interesting regardless though.
See also the rise of https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasmagoria in the 19th.
Dead Comment
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> HAMLET Pale or red?
> HORATIO Nay, very pale.
~1600
I've read of this idea, it's traditional in some cultures, I just don't remember the name of it. I think it's cognate with ideas of doppelgangers and so forth.
I also think there's often an implicit assumption that whatever it is that causes the "imprint" can only reach a certain necessary magnitude that is commensurate with death or dying.
I feel obliged to note this is not my own perspective on things at all, although I admit I like reading about and thinking about these things sometimes as a kind of psychosocial phenomenon, and think it's worthwhile to engage in metaphysical discussions sometimes just as a kind of check.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ikiry%C5%8D
It's not a theory, just detailed, more self-consistent fiction. Like Tolkien's very detailed descriptions of elves.
Deleted Comment
https://annas-archive.org/md5/16e94bf84b997f0233166c401ff047...
I don't see the harm in pondering such theories. After all, the fact we're here and living in the universe at all, means there's a whole bunch of things happening behind the scenes we have no idea about. Perhaps one day, "ghost imprints" will be something science can measure. Or other pseudo-science like telepathy or premonitions, may move into actual science with as yet unknown discoveries. I'm not saying will, but they may.
Dead Comment
That is, instead of "ghost-seers dress the ghost", it's the ghost that dresses itself. In fact, that whole paragraph even makes sense once flipped that way:
"[...] ghosts dress themselves, automatically, through unconscious processes. And so we see a ghost in its usual dress because that is the mental picture the ghost has of itself, and this choice of garment is most likely to inspire recognition."
Deleted Comment
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper's_ghost
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_compositing
If a ghost is meant to be associated with a spirit or soul, there's no particular reason for them to have any form or be visible at all. But as an exercise in worldbuilding, they can be, and their visual appearance can give all kinds of fascinating clues about their previous existence or the viewers'. I'd rather speculate about that.
When a system has a lot of complexity, it needs a lot of computational resources to be simulated accurately.
When suddenly this complexity is not needed anymore, because the system got "simplified" suddenly. The pockets of available computation diffuse slowly into the environment.
The analog for the scientific person here is like your adaptive grid in the simulation was locally in high resolution because it was needed by the physical process, and suddenly the physical process doesn't need it anymore but the simulation grid stays in high resolution.
When some other high complexity process comes nearby (like another rich soul), it benefits from this increased resolution which usually allows him unconsciously to run his computational wetware in higher gear, like in a form of mildly induced schizophrenia, vivid dreams, or hallucinations.
Brains as general information analyzing devices can perceive the shape of this echo from the past, decoding from the faint ripples the stone that impacted the water.
The mythology of absorbing the essence from the passed is varied across time and places, ranging from soul capturing gems, the fighting to survive against the erosion of time like in Highlander accumulating the energy of your rivals by eating their brain.
Looking at it only as a physical process ("real") will make you miss it. It has to be seen through the lens of the ethereal plane. Information is conserved, but details can be compressed more or less. Degrees of freedom accumulated or used are different things.