Apparitions & Specters

An apparition is the classic ghost: the figure of a person – sometimes solid and lifelike, sometimes misty or partial – seen where they cannot be. Every culture has them, from the white and grey ladies of European castles to the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall, whose 1936 photograph in Country Life is one of the most reproduced ghost pictures ever, and Anne Boleyn, said to walk the Tower of London. Many apparitions are linked to a specific tragedy or to someone who loved a place, and many are reported again and again by staff and visitors.

Surveys suggest such experiences are surprisingly common. The Society for Psychical Research’s Census of Hallucinations, published in 1894, found that roughly one in ten of 17,000 respondents had seen or heard something with no apparent cause, and modern polls find that a sizeable minority of Americans believe they have been in the presence of a ghost. Bereaved people frequently report seeing or sensing a loved one who has died – an experience psychologists regard as a normal part of grief.

Investigators look first at the conditions: dim light, peripheral vision, tiredness and expectation all make the brain fill in human shapes, and suggestion – knowing a room is haunted – reliably increases reports. Photographs need special care, since long exposures and double exposures easily create see-through figures. Each file here sets out the history, the witnesses and the likely explanations.