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Vancouver Paranormal Society, EST. 1993

Serving the Lower Mainland, BC, Canada.

EVIDENCE

For as long as photography has existed there have been claims that evidence of paranormal activity has been caught on film. While many have been debunked over the years some are still called into question for one reason or another. What follows are famous ghost pictures that apparently have never been debunked. What do YOU think?

1. The Civil War Soldier

Soldiers are popular subjects of ghost photographs, particularly Civil War soldiers. Such is the case with this photo of what appears to be the ghost of a soldier walking up a set of stairs. The picture dates back to the Civil War.

2. The Watcher

Corroboree Rock is the location of this Australian ghost photo. The subject appears to be a woman holding binoculars. She is looking to the right of the photograph and appears as if she could simply be watching the wildlife.

3. Ghost Baby

This photo almost feels too vivid to be real, but has not been proven fake, so retains its creepy factor. This one is also from Australia and was taken by a mother photographing her daughter’s grave. Interestingly, the daughter was not a baby at the time of her passing and the mother says she does not recognize the ghost baby her camera captured playing on top of her daughter’s grave. Common belief is that the ghost belongs to a baby buried nearby.

4. The Coventry Specter

The so-called specter in this photograph is actually pretty intimidating. A hood covers its face. It is dark and appears to be quite large. While the picture is not proven a hoax, it does raise an interesting question. You will notice that the dinner party in this picture is rather full. Why is there an empty place for the specter to stand if no one invited him?

5. The Ghostly Hand

This photo is rather neat in that it does not show a ghost, but merely a transparent hand on top of a bureau. The photo was taken by one Montague Cooper roughly a century ago. He claimed to have no knowledge of how the hand got there.

6. Lord Combermere

Lord Combermere, once governor of Barbados and curious party in the case of the Chase Vault mystery, appears to have been photographed relaxing in a chair after his death. The photograph, taken by Sybell Corbet, was taken in the library of Combermere Abbey in 1891.

7. Freddy Jackson

In 1919, a photograph was taken of a squadron of R.A.F. pilots. Behind one of the men, a face appears to the right, not wearing the uniform cap, strangely transparent and awfully close to the man he stands behind. The squadron identified the strange face as that of Freddy Jackson, who had died two days before the picture was taken.

The 1936 Brown Lady of Raynham Hall photo is perhaps the most famous ghost picture in history. The story is that the ghost in this picture, taken on a staircase in the hall, is that of Lady Raynham, who was allegedly imprisoned in the hall by her husband for a large portion of her adult life. Stories of sightings are plentiful, but this picture is the centerpiece of the story.

This photograph taken in Newby Church by Reverend Lord at Newby Church in North Yorkshire England is number one not because it is the most authentic-seeming, as many refute its authenticity, but because it is by far the eeriest. The specter looks like a ghost of the murderer from the Scream films. To add to the scary factor, the photo has allegedly been analyzed and it was found that the subject would have measured 9 feet tall.

Logical explanations behind so-called paranormal incidences or captures

Many reported or documented phenomenon can explained logically. Here are a few examples:

1. Orbs

In photography an orb is a typically circular artifact on an image, created as a result of flash photography illuminating a speck of dust or other particle. Orbs are especially common with modern compact and ultra-compact digital cameras.

Orbs are captured during low-light instances where the camera's flash is used. Cases include night or underwater photography, or where a bright light source is near the camera. Light appears much brighter very near the source due to the inverse-square law, which says light intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source. The orb artifact can result from retro-reflection of light off solid particles such as dust or pollen, or liquid particles such as rain. They can also be caused by foreign material within the camera lens. The image artifacts usually appear as either white or semi-transparent circles, though may also occur with whole or partial color spectra, purple fringing or other chromatic aberration. With rain droplets, an image may capture light passing through the droplet creating a small rainbow effect.

Generally speaking, orbs are circular gray or white specks that appear in all sorts of photos, though they're most common in pictures taken at night or in dimly-lit rooms. Many people believe orbs are paranormal in nature but skeptics insist they're nothing more than reflections of dust or moisture in the air.

2. Ghost Faces

Fans of the supernatural often cite ghost faces as evidence of paranormal activity. These faces, which appear in the background of many ghost photos, can be difficult to see or easy to spot but critics say pareidolia is to blame.

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or a sound, by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists. Common examples are perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations, the Man in the Moon, the Moon Rabbit, hidden messages within recorded music played in reverse or at higher or lower-than-normal speeds, and hearing indistinct voices in random noise such as that produced by air conditioners or fans.

3. Mists and Vapor

White mists and vapor like substances are also common in ghost photos. The assumption among ghost enthusiasts is that the mists are apparitions of some kind, though critics say they're nothing more than smoke, fog, or objects in from of the camera.

4. Streaks of Light

Some ghost pictures feature odd streaks of light that many attribute to ghosts. However, skeptics point to cigarette butts, reflections, lightning, and low-level camera settings.

5. Reflection Ghost Photos

Reflection photos are also popular among ghost hunters. While there’s definitely something creepy about the idea of spirits appearing in mirrors or windows, not everyone is convinced that is what is happening. Reflection photos, critics say, are tricks of shadow and light or the reflection of a live human being, not spirits from beyond the grave.

6. Obvious Fakes

There are many obvious fakes on the web, though when it comes to ghosts (which no one can prove are real), it can be difficult to label one photo a fake and another legitimate. Photoshop and popular ghost generator apps don’t make the task any easier.

7. Apparitions

Not all photos fall neatly under the categories listed above. Some photos show what appear to be full body apparitions or mysterious figures in unexpected places. Of course, for every ghost photo, there’s a skeptic to offer an alternative explanation. It seems ghost photos will always remain a controversial topic.