Weiser Field Guide To Ghosts: Apparitions, Spirits, Spectral Lights, and Other Hauntings of History and Legend - Softcover

Raymond Buckland

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1578634512 ISBN 13: 9781578634514

Publisher: Weiser Books, 2009

Synopsis

From battlefield and biblical ghosts to poltergeists and orbs, The Weiser Field Guide to Ghosts examines categories and subcategories of ghosts across time and cultures, including commonalities and misconceptions. Stories of encounters, legendary ghosts, and haunted places are all covered in this beautifully illustrated compendium, a veritable A-Z of the otherworld. The Weiser Field Guide to Ghosts is concise and comprehensive, complete with practical tips on ghost hunting and suggested further reading. From the Book: Ectoplasm The Greek words ekto and plasma, meaning "exteriorized substance" give us the modern word "ectoplasm." This word was coined by Professor Charles Richet in 1894 and applied to a materialized spirit or ghost, as seen at a Spiritualist seance. When a "physical" (as opposed to a "mental") medium goes into trance, he or she may exude a white substance known as ectoplasm. This streams from the body out of a variety of orifices, such as the nose, ears, mouth, navel, nipples, sexual organs, or even just from the pores. Apparently it is light-sensitive, requiring complete darkness to manifest. * A guidebook to a perennial hot topic from one of America's foremost experts on the spirit world, includes topics such as warning ghosts and practical ghost hunting. * The popularity of ghosts never dies! Ideal for fans of shows such as Hauntings on A&E, Ghost Hunters, The Ghost Whisperer, LOST, and Fringe.

About this title

About the Author

Raymond Buckland's grandfather was the first of the Buckland Gypsies to give up traveling the roads in wagons and to settle into a permanent house. From his earliest years, Ray remembers listening to his father's and grandfather's tales of Romani life, and watching his grandmother read cards and tell fortunes. Ray is the author of more than fifty books on occult, magic, witchcraft, and paranormal subjects and is popularly known as The Father of American Wicca. He lives in Ohio. Visit him on the web at: www.raybuckland.com.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Weiser Field Guide to ghosts

Apparition, Spirits, Special Lights, and Other Hauntings of History and Legend

By Raymond Buckland

Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

Copyright © 2009 Raymond Buckland
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-57863-451-4

Contents

Introduction
Ancestral Ghosts
Animal Ghosts
Apparitions
Battlefield Ghosts
Biblical Ghosts
Celebrity Ghosts
Deceiving Ghosts
Fairies
Guardian Ghosts
Historic Ghosts
Inhuman Ghosts
Literary Ghosts
Living Ghosts
Materializations
Monsters
Mythical Ghosts; Folklore Ghosts
Nature Ghosts
Omen Ghosts; Prophetic Ghosts
Poltergeists
Possessive Ghosts
Religious Ghosts
Shadow Ghosts
Spirits
Spectral Lights
Vampires
Warning Ghosts
Practical Ghost Hunting
Further Reading
Index

CHAPTER 1

Ancestral Ghosts

As the name implies, ancestral ghosts are the spirits of departed familymembers. There are various reasons for ghosts to haunt the living world. It maybe that they are drawn to a particular area through a traumatic experience theyhad there (possibly the manner of their death) or through experiencing greathappiness in that location. There can also be the need to contact the living,either to give a message or simply to let the survivors know that the spirit isstill in existence, albeit on another plane. Many times the spirit is drawn backbecause of remorse for some actions or treatment of a relative or close friend.

Ancestral ghosts may watch over a new child and watch it grow and develop. Theymay be in attendance at weddings and other important events in the lives ofsurviving relatives. Deceased parents and grandparents have been seen inphotographs of such events, materializing to be a part of them.

Japanese Ghosts

In the Japanese religion of Shintoism, deceased ancestors acquire the power ofdeities with supernatural attributes. Surviving relatives worship them byhonoring their pictures, burning incense, and making offerings of food anddrink. In this way, the ancestors are propitiated and will bring good luck tothe family. They do have the potential for good or for evil, and their focus ison the same interests they held when alive. To the Japanese, the dead are noless than the living, taking part in the daily life of the family.

There are stories of ghosts of the ancestors materializing and remaining visiblefor years. For three days in July, there is the Festival of the Dead, at whichtime the deceased may return from the spirit world to look around at the countryand to visit with the family. New mats are placed at all the family shrines, andfresh food is prepared and laid out ready for the ghosts' return. Some Shintosects perform a rite in which a person is selected to be possessed by anancestral spirit. It is believed that then, with the spirit acting through theliving person, healings may be performed and prophecies made.

Traditional ghosts are the Yurei, which hang around after death mainly to seekvengeance for something that happened in life. Many of them are female. The namemeans "faint/dim/hazy spirit." The normal, non-vindictive spirit is the Reikon,which simply leaves the physical body and joins the other ancestors. Then thereare the Yokai, or "bewitching apparitions." These always appear at dawn or duskand include monsters and spirits like goblins. It's said that they sometimessteal small children. The Obake or Bakemono are general terms for preternaturalbeings of any sort and include the Yurei and Yokai but can also include anythingstrange and unusual.

In recent years, many ghosts have appeared in otherwise ordinary familyphotographs. These usually are seen as extra faces or—in a large number ofcases—extra hands in the picture. There have also been sightings in Japanesevideos. For example, an amateur video taken of a girl on a moving train, whenslowed, showed a partially transparent figure of a girl outside the window. Thesighting was at a section of track where more than one person had committedsuicide by jumping from the train.

Shinrei Shashin is a phrase used to describe photos where ghosts or spiritsdecide to show all or part of themselves when a photo is taken. Shinrei Shashinis a popular subject on Japanese TV.

Ka

Ka (sometimes ba) is the name given to the ancient Egyptian spirit or soul or,more correctly, to a "double" of that soul, similar to an astral body. It hasbeen referred to as an alter ego or guardian spirit. Not only humans but animalsand even inanimate objects had kas. At the tomb of a deceased person, therewould be built a "House of Ka"—a home for the double. The actual soul would makeperiodic visits to its counterpart at that house. The House of Ka is whereofferings of food and drink would be left. If there was neglect, then the kawould be forced to leave that house and roam, as a ghost, eating and drinkingwhatever could be found. Such a ghost might be encountered by the living.

Revenant

The word revenant is sometimes used interchangeably with ghost. Revenants may behuman or animal. "Revenant" covers the whole gamut of ghosts, apparitions,specters, poltergeists, phantoms, and so on. The word is from the Frenchrevenir, meaning "to return."

Animal Ghosts

Animals have spirits/souls, and they do go on to the afterlife, just as humansdo. Consequently, it's not unusual for some of those spirits to return—again aswith humans—in ghostly form. Animals of all types have been seen as ghosts in awide variety of locations. Not all reports of animal ghosts are sightings,however; some are sounds, such as animal footsteps on a tile floor, or a cat'smeow or a dog's bark. Deceased family pets show up in snapshots of familymembers, reuniting with their loved ones. For example, when Lady Hehir wasphotographed with her Irish wolfhound Tara, in 1926, there in the picture,behind Tara's rear end, was the face of Kathal, a Cairn terrier pet who had diedsix weeks before the photograph was taken. Kathal and Tara had been inseparablefriends before the terrier's demise.

Similarly, a family photograph of two ladies and their maid at tea, taken inTingewick, England, in 1916 shows a dark-colored dog standing beside one of theladies. The photograph was taken by a retired CID (Secret Service) inspector. Noone—photographer or sitters—saw anything of a dog there at the time. The dog ispartially transparent in the photo.

Another family group picture, taken at Clarens, Switzerland, in August 1925, isof a mother with her baby in a carriage and a young son standing beside thecarriage holding a toy kitten. But also visible in the picture, peeking aroundthe toy, is the head of a real white kitten—one that had belonged to the familybut that had died some weeks earlier.

In Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places, Brad Steiger recounts thestory of a ten-year-old boy whose pet dog had been run over and killed by a car,in late October 1971. Six or eight months later, the boy was playing a game ofhide-and-seek with his friends, in a two-acre field of waist-high wild wheat. Ashe ran through the field, looking for his friends, the boy almost tripped over adog. It was his deceased pet, Snoopy, who stood wagging his tail. The dog hadvery distinctive markings, and there was no mistaking him. The boy chased afterthe animal as it turned and trotted off through the wheat, disappearing fromsight. The boy ran forward and suddenly came upon the cement block that he andhis mother had placed in the field in lieu of a tombstone. It still bore thename Snoopy, together with the date of death, written in permanent marker by theboy's mother.

Ghosts of horses, ponies, cattle, wild cats, and other animals have been seen.The sounds of deceased animals—including the raucous voice of a long-deadparrot—have also been heard.

Galleytrot

Also known as Black Shuck, or Old Shuck, the Galleytrot is a very large ghostlydog that appears in different parts of southern England as a harbinger of death.The dog's howls are usually heard before he is seen, and he is mostly seenprowling around graveyards or loping along lonely country roads. It is said thatto meet or even catch a glimpse of the Galleytrot means that you or someoneclose to you will die within the year.

The Galleytrot is also known by such names as the Black Dog, Hellbeast,Churchyard Dog, and similar. In New England, especially in New Hampshire, thereis a similar ghostly demon dog known as Ol' Doofus. Such "Hounds of the Devil"are also known in other parts of the world, and such a one was supposedly theinspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tale The Hound of the Baskervilles.Whole packs of such spectral beasts can be found in folklore, such as the houndsassociated with the Wild Hunt in Norse and Teutonic mythology. (See also WhishtHounds.)

Gef

Strange animal noises were heard in the farmhouse of James and Margaret Irvingin September 1931. The farmhouse was known as Cashen's Gap and was located onthe Isle of Man (in the middle of the Irish Sea) near the hamlet of Dalby. Thenoises came from the attic. The Irvings' thirteen-year-old daughter, Voirrey,soon discovered that the unseen animal could repeat words that she spoke. Itlater became a very fluent speaker. The animal told them that its name was Gefand that it came from New Delhi, India; it had been born there June 7, 1852. Itdid not say how it came to be in the attic of the farmhouse. It later earned thenickname "The Dalby Spook."

Supposedly, Gef spied on neighbors' activities and reported then to the Irvingfamily. When word of this got around, the neighbors were very annoyed. JamesIrving kept diaries on all these activities from 1932 till 1935. These reportsare presently in the Senate House Library, in the Harry Price archives.

Journalists gathered to try to catch a glimpse of Gef, but failed. Many said itwas a ghost or phantom, or just a product of the Irvings' imaginations. Therewas some poltergeist activity that seemed to center around the daughter Voirrey.Both ghost hunter Harry Price and Dr. Nandor Fodor (International Institute forPsychical Research) investigated the episode but could find no evidence offraud.

In 1937 the Irvings moved away, and ten years later the farmer who bought theland saw a strange creature and shot it. It turned out to be a mongoose.

Ghost Horses

The Pony Express was in existence between April 1860 and October 1861. Thisrapid mail service that operated between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento,California. One of the old Pony Express stations still standing is HollenbergStation in Kansas. Hollenberg's administrator, Duane Durst, has many times heardthe sound of footsteps on the second floor and of furniture being moved,although he knows that the upper floor is completely empty. But he and othershave also heard the sounds of horses whinnying and stamping. Late at night therehas been heard the creaking of saddles and the pounding of hooves, as of poniesgalloping past. "When the wind blows," says Durst, "you hear a lot of creakingand groaning, and the sounds of someone upstairs."

Whisht Hounds

Seen in the southwest of England, in Devon and Cornwall, the Whisht Hounds are aghostly pack of dogs associated with the old pagan deity Woden (Odin of Norsemythology). They are said to be black with red eyes, though at times they mayappear headless. As a pack, they follow a figure on horseback who is supposedlythe Devil, Woden, or even Sir Francis Drake, depending upon local legend. (Drakelived in the sevenhundred-year-old Buckland Abbey, Devon—itself a hauntedbuilding.) As with the Galleytrot, it is said that to sight the Whisht Houndsmeans death within the year. Many country folk, even today, claim that they haveheard the baying of the hounds, usually "over in the next valley," and havehurried home very much afraid.

Midsummer's Eve is the prime time for a sighting of the Whisht Hounds, thoughthey may appear at any time of the year, usually in the dark of the moon. (Seealso Galleytrot.)

Wild Hunt

The Wild Hunt is the name given to the ghostly appearance of men, horses, andhounds that, on stormy nights, roam the countryside of southwestern England. Itis also known generally across northern and western Europe, especially innorthern Germany. The procession may be seen in particular at Samhain, orHallowe'en. The leader of the hunt has been described as young, old, male, andfemale, by various observers, and has been named Herne the Hunter, Woden, Satan,Holda, Valdemar Atterdag, Bertha, and even Diana or Hecate.

Sometimes the hunt takes place across the sky, rather than on the ground, andmay be attributed to violent thunderstorms. At various times, and in variousplaces, it has been said that the purpose of the hunt is to seek out sinners orthe unbaptized and to take them to Hell. If in danger of viewing the hunters,you should fall to the ground and cover your face. Some say that you also needto recite the Lord's Prayer. The hunt has been reported as seen in England asrecently as the late twentieth century.

Apparitions

An apparition is a ghost sighting or sensing—the supernormal perception of thespirit of a deceased person or animal. Yet apparitions are of a wide variety oftypes. They may seem transparent or they may appear solid; they may be completeor only partially visible; they may seem to communicate vocally or be mute; theymay be helpful or threatening. Some apparitions are no more than "memories" ofthe deceased, in effect replaying the events (of the person's death, perhaps)like the repeated playing of a DVD.

Some apparitions are of the living. They might be the astral body of someonealive but located elsewhere that has suddenly become visible to the observer.Some people with strong psychic ability are able to see astral bodies onoccasion.

What are known as "crisis apparitions" are those astral bodies that appear toloved ones at a moment of crisis—just as they are being killed or are dying, forexample. There have been countless examples of this, especially during wartime,with sons and daughters, husbands and wives, appearing to their loved ones atthe moment of death. This is frequently the astral body being seen, whichappears in the brief moments before the actual death and then becomes the trueapparition as the death takes place. Such crisis apparitions generally appear inthe viewer's everyday surroundings. Crisis apparitions may also appear as awarning to the observer, or to direct them to a particular locale.

Airmen

A hotel was made out of the old World War II Officers' Mess at Bircham NewtonAirfield, England. The hotel was for a construction industry training company,and one part of the building was for making training films. Behind the building,a double squash court was erected, and it soon became apparent that one of thesesquash courts was haunted by an airman. The ghost was spotted by two squashplayers who then set up a tape recorder where they had seen the apparition. Whenthey played back the tape the following morning, they heard the sounds of a busyairfield—male and female voices, aircraft taking off and landing, machinery,unusual "pinging" noises, and what they described as "strange unearthly groaningnoises."

Ghostly airmen were seen by a number of people; one of the apparitions was seento walk through a brick wall that had not been there when the airfield wasoriginally in use. A BBC reporter who spent a night there reported feelings of"intense cold," hearing doors banging, and the complete breakdown of previouslyflawless recording equipment.

Angiak

According to Inuit folklore, if a child is deliberately killed by being leftexposed in the snow, its ghost—known as an angiak—will repeatedly appear to theparents and other members of the tribe unless the tribe moves away from the siteas soon as possible after the death. It is said that the baby's wailing criescan be heard, haunting the tribe.

Bhut; Bhuta

This is Hindu and is considered to be an evil ghost, one that is usuallyassociated with a suicide, someone who was executed, or someone who died byaccident. It is said that bhuts have no shadows and that they never rest on theground. To avoid meeting one, then, it is recommended to lie on the ground. Agood way to protect yourself from encountering a bhut is to burn tumeric, whichthey detest.

Bourru

Of unknown origin, the bourru is the apparition of a figure dressed as a monk.It is said to walk the streets of Paris, France, late at night. It will look inat the windows of timid people, often passing back and forth a number of timesto do so. Unruly children are often told that the bourru will come to get themif they do not behave.

Churel

In India, the churel is the ghost of a woman who has died in childbirth, or in astate of ceremonial impurity. Originally it was the ghost of a person of lowcaste in India. The ghost is regarded as malignant. It has no mouth and shufflesalong on feet that are reversed. Sometimes the churel appears in the form of abeautiful woman, to attract and trap young men and to then keep them in itspower until they are old and gray. Many times a woman who dies in childbirthwill be buried face down to prevent the spirit from becoming a churel.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Weiser Field Guide to ghosts by Raymond Buckland. Copyright © 2009 Raymond Buckland. Excerpted by permission of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Weiser Books
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1578634512
• ISBN 13: 9781578634514
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192