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How often has a ghost been right in front of you, and you didn’t know it?
I’ll be honest. It’s happened to me, a LOT!
Technically, ghosts you can see are called “apparitions.”
And there may be more of them than you expect!
But when I’ve seen them, it’s almost always when I didn’t expect them.
So, let’s talk about what they are… and aren’t.
What is an apparition, anyway?
The Oxford dictionary defines apparition as:
apparition: a ghost or ghostlike image of a person.
But what is “ghostlike” for you?
- A shadow person?
- A fleeting, translucent white figure?
- A solid-looking person, who appears to be in outdated clothing (if it’s a historical ghost)?
I’ve seen all three.
One shadow person seemed so real, I thought it was an actual, cast shadow. (You can see that photo – and learn more about shadow people – at my Ghosts 101 article, Are Shadow People Dangerous?)
This short video explains more:
(See more ghost-related videos at my YouTube channel: Ghost Hunting with Fiona Broome.)
The ghosts we lived with…
In one apartment (in a converted Victorian mansion in Maine that we jokingly called our “Amityville apartment”), we regularly saw fleeting, translucent figures.
I’m pretty sure they were residual energy. They seemed to be accessing other parts of the building through closet doors. But – in an earlier era – those doors probably led to other rooms.
We usually saw the figures so fleetingly, they were gone by the time we realized no one else was in that room, and it wasn’t a trick of the light.
Solid-looking apparitions are incredibly rare.
I’m sure I’ve seen one, and possibly more.
The problem is, they look so real, it’s easy to confuse them with actual, living people wearing costumes. (I talked about that recently, in connection with costume parties and reenactments.)
My advice: Keep it simple. Just wait and watch!
- Be open to the cues, clues, and actual anomalies that can appear when we least expect them.
That can be the difference between a disappointing investigation and a wildly successful one.