Page 22 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

2 Ghosts and Phantoms

the Whaley House, and the Myrtle Plantation
will be examined.
A Gallup Poll conducted in May 2001
revealed that 38 percent of Americans surveyed
believed in the existence of ghosts. Responding
to another question in the same survey, 42 per-
cent of the respondents admitted that they
believed in the reality of haunted houses, a 13
percent increase since a poll conducted in
1990. In the largest survey of paranormal
beliefs ever conducted in the United Kingdom,
the Consumer Analysis Group found that 57
percent of the British public believe in ghosts.
Television documentaries, such as the
“Haunted History” series on The History
Channel and the remaking of “In Search Of”
“Poltergeist” movie. (THE
Introduction on the Sci Fi Channel, present evidence of
KOBAL COLLECTION)
ghosts and hauntings that the viewing public
ghost is believed to be a physical mani- is eager to accept as proof of spirits existing in
festation of the surviving spirit of a per- castles, cottages, and taverns around the
Ason who is known to be deceased. The world. Motion picture producers have found
spirit form of the ghost may appear as a mistlike, vast audiences eager for such stylish ghost sto-
amorphous mass; a lifelike, but transparent, ries as The Sixth Sense (1999), Sleepy Hollow
image of a person; or an exact physical replica of (1999), and The Others (2001).
an individual known to be dead. Even if the
person represented by the manifestation is well Books about ghosts—both fiction and non-
known or loved by those who encounter its fiction—remain high on readers’ lists of popu-
presence, the appearance of a ghost most often lar titles. Barnes & Noble.com carries 8,102
provokes feelings of fear or awe. books with the key words “ghost stories.”
Although the terms “ghosts” and “phan- And then there is the Internet. There are
toms” are generally interchangeable in popular more than 650,000 websites devoted to the
usage, many psychical researchers who special- topics of ghosts and hauntings.
ize in such areas of the unknown draw the dis- In spite of such remarkable interest in ghosts
tinction that phantoms are most often associat- by a large segment of the general public, one of
ed with locales that over the years have built up the main reasons why neither science nor soci-
unique atmospheres, such as places of battle, ety at large has seriously considered the question
tragedy, or great suffering. In such hauntings, of ghosts and phantoms is the lack of what sci-
certain ethereal figures may be reported so entists consider to be tangible physical evidence
often over so many years that they seem almost that proves that there is anything other than a
to have assumed an independent life force that void waiting for humans upon death. Skeptics
has enabled them to continue to exist within remain untouched by the most moving, fright-
the context of a specific battlefield, the ruins of ening, or inspirational anecdotes of personal
a burned building, or the shadowed places in a encounters with spirits, and even the most
hospital corridor. In this chapter the many cat- open-minded of contemporary scientists are
egories of ghosts and phantoms will be reluctant to get involved in “ghost hunting” for
explored, such as apparitions of the dead, the fear of tarnishing their shields of objectivity.
possibility of animal spirits, the phenomenon of And since ghosts are allegedly spirits of the
“spooklights,” and the disrupting energy of the once-living who have survived physical death,
poltergeist, a noisy, rambunctious ghost. In many scientists wish to avoid what they believe
addition, the details of such classic hauntings as to be areas that transgress into abstract and eso-
the Bell Witch’s Cave, the Borley Rectory, teric elements of faith and religion.

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