Ghosts are often seen wearing the same outfit they had on when they died, making it unlikely that they can or need to wash their clothes. Some believe that astral matter responds to thought and appears as they want to appear, typically in their prime of their life’s age in their typical clothes. Ghosts can change their clothes and even change how they look physically.
Some believers claim that ghosts are seen wearing clothing because they are “residual memories”, and the clothing is part of the memory. Many reports of ghosts have them mistaken for the living, dressed in their ordinary clothes. For example, Daniel Defoe famously reported on ghosts wearing whatever they want. Heather Pain tells IndieWire about finding distinctive looks for a centuries-spanning ensemble who won’t ever change clothes.
Yes, ghosts definitely do wear clothes. This article explores why they do and introduces some of the most famous ghosts and their otherworldly attire. They can appear in many colors, dress male and female, and have the ability to change forms. Some people have seen dark dresses and red burning bodies, but it is unclear how the living perceive and perceive these phenomena.
📹 Why ghosts wear sheets
Ghost clothes! More info and sources at bottom. Find me elsewhere: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philedwardsinc/ …
📹 The History of Ghost Fashion: How to Dress like a Victorian Spirit
Have you ever wondered how ghosts got their clothing? What fashions led to the white sheet with holes for eyes? And why is …
I never thought the ghost was supposed to be wearing a sheet. I always thought the sheet was supposed to be the ghost’s “body”. Just a simple way to draw clouds of ecto-plasma, mist, RediWhip or what ever ghosts were supposed to be made of. Now I stuck with the though of a nekkid ghost dude under that sheet.
Never realized the sheets were burial shrouds. Makes more sense why someone would be scared by that now. Like I grew up perusal that hassle in the castle Scooby Doo episode and always kinda rolled my eyes at why they’d be scared of a dude in a sheet even if it started walking through walls. That’s one of those interesting cases of it being so removed from the zeitgeist by the time I was born that it just didn’t make sense. Also love when knowledge like this makes things like that Beetlejuice scene funnier.
Fascinating topic as always Phil! One thing that occurred to me was these supposed “photographs” of ghosts, wouldn’t they be relying on a double exposure trick? Surely that wouldn’t work if the apparitions were wearing something dark like a suit or an overcoat. Something very light on the other hand, like a white sheet would be the perfect thing. Maybe this helped to reinforce the image over time?
I always interpreted the “ghost clothes” thing as implying that the clothes are an extension of the person. What someone chooses to wear is very closely linked with their personality & by extension their sense of self. We dress in the way we want to be see ourselves & have others see us as. If ghosts are souls that stick around & retain that sense of self after death then it would make sense that they would take a form with their clothes because their clothes are a part of themselves.
In “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” the sheets are the ghost. The sheets were possessed. Just realized this after perusal your article. And nowadays ghosts are always wearing cloths. Sometimes indistinguishable from the living like in American Horror Stories, and the Sixth Sense. I like articles that give food to thoughts.
Funny and interesting article as always! This is kinda far from the topics but can’t help to mention that in Indonesia there are specific ghost called “Pocong” that covered in that “burial shroud” or “kain kafan” in Indonesian. Because we bury deceased with that “burial shroud” so we also associate ghost with those sheets. But if there was a ghost sighting in abandoned dutch house or building the ghost is surely wearing those fancy European clothing😂
It’s interesting that people assumed at all that a ghost would carry a visual copy of their body into the afterlife. I think that’s even broader than the clothing debate. However, it took philosophers a while to rationalize what our consciousness is. I think since our bodies are the only part we can see, we assume that it is of greatest importance.
In the BBC comedy series ‘Ghosts’ the ghosts wear the clothes from when they died. It includes a scandalous politician who is wearing a suit and tie from the waist up but no trousers. The ghosts can take off their clothes but then it disappears and they are suddenly wearing them again. The series is great by the way – it has been remade in the US although I’ve not seen that one yet.
Phil, I love the way you tell stories. No matter what the topic (and regardless of thumbnail!) I know I’m going to enjoy taking the ride perusal your articles and hearing your stories. Did you just naturally develop this skill over time or did you create an algorithmic or formulaic process you follow to tell stories in such an engaging way, regardless of the topic? I’m always fascinated by your articles, but also META-fascinated about how you create them!
The New Testament gospel account of Jesus walking on the water out to the boat of his companions whom he had earlier dismissed on their boat ride reports him being mistaken for a ghost by his very frightened companions. Then Jesus explains that he isn’t a ghost. Since Jesus presumably wasn’t naked when he did that, his appearance would have been in clothes, so it would seem a ghost in clothes was a normally expected thing at the time, and that an actual ghost, inasmuch as one could exist, could be expected to carry around the illusion of clothing, or some metaphysical projection of clothing. I’m mildly surprised that the bible wasn’t consulted in those early discussions — or maybe it was but you didn’t report it? Anyhow “sheet ghosts” would by this norm also be expected to be the illusion or metaphysical projection that the ghost in question chose (or had chosen for them) to carry. Perhaps clothed ghosts represented something nobler or more portentious than sheeted ghosts. But for costume play purposes, sheeted ghosts are not ambiguous. Doing normal clothes in a “ghostly” manner could be a laborious task, though one needed for certain dramatic purposes in dramatic presentations. Agreed here, “ghost tailors” is an uproariously silly idea. Today we would ask if ghost garments were made on ghost machines in ghost Pakistan, ghost China, or wherever. Classic Christian understanding, incidentally, is that ghosts are caused by the devil, who can cook up whatever illusions he wishes as long as God grants permission.
Bit of an odd comparison to end on there – using the idea of ghosts wearing bedsheets as a comparison to people legitimising the moon landing? Maybe I’m just not understanding correctly, but I’m confused at your conclusion. Either way, entertaining article as always and I hope y’all have a great Halloween! 👻🎃
That was great. Personally I think ghost sightings are just time leaking, a fleeting extra-temporal experience which science will one day explain and possibly build upon. It works on poltergeist activity as well; the table didn’t move, you just experienced a point in time when it was in a different position. This isn’t even a theory, merely a hypothesis, but it’s mine and I like it 🙂
You know, the bit at the end about using logic to construct a plausible explanation around a baseless belief didn’t make me think of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience first. The first thing I thought of was worldbuilding and theorycrafting for fictional universes. As a matter of fact I would say that’s probably one of the most fundamental skills of the fiction writer, particularly in “genre” fiction like fantasy, scifi, supernatural fiction, etc. To be fair, constructing conspiracy theories and pseudoscience is not all that different from constructing fictional worlds. I guess the difference is whether you believe the initial premise to be a factual reality, or whether you are choosing to suspend disbelief for the purposes of creating a fictional world that has internal logic.
Here I thought it was a soulution to them being souls(transparent) like since I have never really realized seen that many ghost photographs of antiquity to early Hollywood, I just assumed those outfits more had to do with the general cloak=creepy motif of the occult and monsters like death(the grim reaper),vampires,witches, and even things like cult members.
I’d always assumed ghosts in clothes were based on some idea that the spirit appeared to others in the way they viewed themselves, and that’s how younger looking ghosts worked when the person they were based on died of old age or of a terrible accident. So maybe there would logically be some naked phantasms if the person was a nudist? Regardless, one of the things I don’t worry about too much because I don’t want to spend too much time ruining the verisimilitude of someone else’s story, like I tend not to insist on Star Trek tv shows realistically showing people using restrooms.
From an artistic standpoint, I’d like to imagine a ghost wearing what they would have been wearing in the final moments of their death. Also I like how sometimes in media they show how the spirit even died, and is always in unending agony from the wound, or illness that caused their death. Like the ghost of someone who had been hung would have a crooked neck from when the noose tightened. That’s how I’d design a ghost.
I think this could make a good lecture for science & PhD students. Because science do chase a lot, a LOT of ghosts. The first mistake is believe that it’s easy to recognize when it’s a ghost or when it’s a good theory. When things “make sense” they are true, and when they don’t, they are false… The way you show “there is more behind it” is a great example of why one should never stop at the easy explanation.
If I was a ghost – I would go to the moon to see you the stuff that we left there and to see the world is a spear. Then I would start messing with all the people who think that those two things are not real. Those people would start talking about ghosts and how real they are enough that people will start thinking they’re crazy and stop caring what they’re saying all women in actuality they are third crazy theory would actually be true
I have been thinking it’s the ghosts idea of how they look, a little bit like how Neo’s hair comes back in the Matrix, combined with what killed you and what’s keeping you from passing. Ghosts have many reasons to be ghosts, you can have unfinished business of all sorts, or you can be cursed or have some other supernatural force keeping you etc. People also die in very different ways, some die in a bed knowing its going to happen and others get hit from behind with a blunt object. So a ghost that knows it’s dead or knew it was dying has a higher likelihood of wearing a sheet maybe? 🙂 If there is a customization screen before I become a ghost, then I’ll go for a classic sheet.
You are also hitting on another important thing–why do most of our supposed “hauntings” only seem to go back as far as the Victorian period? Probably because that’s when these kinds of spirit photography and ghost stories were at their apex. Hauntings before that period are generally myth-creating to give a connection in the present to a period of significance in the past–a ghost of someone who fought in a significant war, or a ghost in a castle from the golden age of a kingdom, etc.
Imagine my delight to see the title “O Whistle and I’ll come to Ye”, having sung the complex and pretty choral piece over 35 years ago. : ” O whistle, and I’ll come to ye my lad, O whistle and il come to ye my lad. Though my father and mother and all should go mad, O whistle and il come to ye my lad.” Here’s a pretty good version, with even the ghost shroud hanging directly above the singers: youtu.be/lUxvX_EV4eE. And then in addition to find the radio play recording here! Thank you as usual Phil Edwards.
The origin of the sheet-ghost starts with the Ancient Egyptian God “Medjed”. Additionally, Spiritualists believe that ghosts wear whatever is psychically connected to the person via soul-imprinting. The spiritualists believed items that were associated with people often were imbued with part of their soul.
While I don’t believe in ghosts, I have a serious problem with the “well, if it’s kinda complicated, let’s just not believe in it” fantasy being called “logic”. And I call it fantasy because it’s not even a logic fallacy, it’s just wishful thinking. That anything that isn’t simple enough to fit in the particular brain of the one thinking about it must be false. People who love this fantasy like to latch onto Occam’s razor without actually knowing what Occam’s razor is. Occam’s razor is a good place to start. “Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.” Notice it’s not “the simplest explanation is (always/usually/probably/etc.) right” like pop culture likes to phrase it. It gets that phrasing because those words are easier to read or hear, but the essence is removing unnecessary complication, not rejecting ideas that are complicated. Quantum physics is a great case for looking at this where we know it isn’t fiction. We know from thoroughly tested and repeated experiments that individual particles below some scale can interfere with their own path as if they were waves, but if they are observed they act purely as if they are particles. We know by the same experiments that you can delay that observation and it affects a measurement that occurred in the past even at arbitrarily large distances. The explanations physicists have come up with to try to explain that read like arguments about ghosts having tailors, but those explanations have lead to equations that give the most accurate verifiable calculations in physics.
Another thing they probably thought about was that if you see ghost clothes, and they’re transparent, why can’t you see the ghost body under the ghost clothes? This problem doesn’t go away when exchanging clothes with sheets. Relatively funny true story, in the weeks/months before my grandma’s passing, she hallucinated a black man who would visit her sometimes. He would not be wearing clothes nor be transparent according to her, just a regular black man.We think it was a benevolent spirit, but it surely wasn’t a relative of us haha. Kinda creepy how convinced she was of his existence, but she wasn’t bothered by it.
In all seriousness I just so happen to live in a place that was a former brothel just on the outskirts of Reno, NV.; Oh and for years has been reported by many to be haunted. Seeing is believing….and I saw. The woman walked out of a neighbors bathroom and stood next to me and I saw her out of my peripheral vision. She was so clear and real I turned to say “Hi” thinking it was my neighbors Mother. I didn’t speak of it for months but it turns out I wasn’t the first to see her. My advise is: They were and are people so respect them and hopefully they’ll do so in return.
If you read books on astral projection and out of body experience, the mind of a living person who has a very limited idea of what can be real and possible, when seeing a spiritual being will apparently force it to change into whatever the person thinks it should look like. That’s not what it actually is, but the mind of the person seeing it demands some sort of context and will make up a bunch of backstory to make what is seen understandable. But when inspected closely the vision falls apart due to various automatic assumptions being made about what is seen that ultimately make no sense or trail off into noise. This does not dismiss the spiritual entity’s realness but rather that the living person’s mind is incorrectly forcing its appearance to coincide with what the living persons thinks is possible. This is further complicated by the fact that any attempt at complex communication by the spiritual being can be mistranslated by the mind of the person experiencing it, to force the communication to fit the false visual narrative they are creating for themselves, and which also may come across as gibberish if closely examined. Due to this a spiritual being may not bother to try to do much more than project a sense of love and leave it at that, due to the mind of the person experiencing it forcing the spirit being to fit an irrational but otherwise plausible world view that they think they can understand. For someone who has a much more open mind without assumptions about what they “should” see, a spiritual being can be seen as more of a cloudy ball of light that seems to emit a glow from within itself with no apparent source.
“Ghost clothes” are actually a thing. It is described in the book of Revelations chapter 6: “And there was given to them, to each one a white robe; and it was said to them that they should rest yet a little while, until both their fellow-bondmen and their brethren, who were about to be killed as they, should be fulfilled.” Since we got knowledge about good and evil, God was concerned about humans walking naked around and so gave Adam and Eve animal clothes. It shouldn’t be different on afterlife circumstances.
We have a party on a farm each year. Each year I bring a life sized dummy with a hessian bag over it’s head. We prop it up in places and people often mistake it for a real person or act out violence or kindness upon it, depending on the sort if person they are. One year, late in the night, I dressed as the dummy, wearing the sack, which you can see out of, but they couldn’t see my face. Interesting to see peoples reactions. My mates laughed, and would “arrange” my limbs as if I was the dummy. One group of girls (who normally accept me into their circle) snubbed me, closed me out of conversations and even after I talked, had to rip the bag off my head to confirm it was me and accept me back into the group. The dummy was never alive. But interesting to see the reactions to animating the inanimate.
I have seen three supposed “ghosts”. These experiences were compelling enough for me to entertain the possibility that they were something more than purely my imagination—multiple, simultaneous witnesses, etc. They seemed quite real and exogenous phenomena, so I am willing to consider the possibility that they are, at least partly, occurring outside of our subjective imagining. In other words, there may be something more to ghost sightings than current science allows. However, any attribution that ghosts are spirits of the dead, or supernatural entities of some sort is conjecture at best. These sightings may be real, but we should resist drawing any conclusion as to what they may be. BTW: None of my three ghosts wore a sheet or shroud. I’m actually not aware of any witness to a ghost phenomenon who has said their ghost wore a sheet. Do you know of any?
Simpler solution: ghosts aren’t physical manifestations theyre cerebral influenced causes by ripples of the messy energetic routing systems that are living things. So they appear in whatever garb is most convenient for the observer. Since naked is sexy and the ghost isnt trying to be sexy, it’s not naked
Great article. I always thought that the clothes could be what theybwere wearing when they died, rather than burried. The experience being so traumatic that it left it’s impression on a specific site. That is why ghosts would haunt a specific area, and not roam around, and why they are seen wearing clothes. It mught not even be the spirit of the person, but some impression left from extreme trauma.
On ghost clothing: were used to seeing souls every day, dressed in the usual form, not clothes, those are decoration to the flesh and bone souls occupy. So if a ghost is observed, it’s observed as a naked soul, something our flesh brains can’t quite process, hence ghost being transparent, out the corner of the eye etc. Therefore it’s not unreasonable to assume that the flesh brain projects a certain amount of information onto what’s being observed in order to try to make sense of it. That projection is based on the life experiences of the observer and thus different apparitions are born.
honestly i dont see any problem with ghosts wearing clothes, if a ghost represents a person’s consciousness would that not also include the clothes that person wore? i pick my outfits in my head, i can visualize all my clothes and imagine what it might look like if i wore different combos. the clothes themselves dont need to be dead or alive, they are part of the person
Awesome article! An interesting side note: prior to the 19th Century, ghosts were not typically thought of as being see-through. It was only after they started to use double exposures and partially exposed images in spirit photography that translucent ghosts became the cultural norm. On an even more tangential note, the winding-sheet look later evolved into the footy-pajama look of Casper the Friendly Ghost. When Casper is flying, his legs disappear and take on a wavy shape that is either meant to represent the bottom of a winding sheet or possibly Casper’s ectoplasm changing form. The winding-sheet effect is more obvious with his uncles, the Ghostly Trio—their heads look sort of like the peaked top of a folded sheet—which became a legal matter when Harvey Comics sued Columbia Pictures for copyright infringement over its Ghostbusters Logo. The 19th Century is the last time you’ll hear anyone seriously talking about ghosts having any kind of physical dimension. Modern paranormal researchers tend to prefer vague terms like “energy,” implying that the ghost can appear pretty much any way it wants to.
Some tips on making a sheet ghost – put the sheet over you, get it comfortable and oriented so that your arms are pointed towards 2 corners and the other 2 corners are in front of you and behind you – and if it’s not a square then you may need to make it one by folding it diagonally, lining up the edges, and cutting it to square (practice with a sheet of paper first to see how that works). Then hold one hand against your eyes. With the other hand, take a Sharpie and mark the same shape over each eye. Now cut a hole that is too small for each, look through them, and work out how much bigger you need to make the eye holes. If you want to take it a step further, get elastic and make a loop big enough to fit around your head from the back of the head to your nose without stretching. Stitch the ends together and put it around your neck. Then pull the sheet over you as before and tack the elastic with sewing pins or safety pins from the outside. (Both ends of the pin should be outside if you did it right, so the points aren’t pointed towards you when you take it off.) When the pins are holding the elastic in place, take it off and sew in the elastic. That makes a “hood” for your head to go in so that it’s easy to keep your ghost “head” over your head and your eye holes where you want them. If you want to take it further – After sewing the neck part and cutting the holes, stitch around the eye holes so they don’t ravel. Then cut the loose threads so they don’t bother your eyes. – After doing any of the above, crumple the whole thing up, then lay it flat, then crumple it again.
No way no way in heck do I believe you on ghost wearing sheets that’s just a cheap version Halloween costume man people do that to look like or appear be ghost cuz that’s what they think they would look like they’re not actually wearing sheets like ghost look like regular people just more hollo pretty much spirits dude this is crazy man they don’t actually go around wearing sheets okay that is just in old movies and trick or treat costumes okay.
I like the idea of a ghost being a plain white body outline. No curves, genitalia or breasts – just a vague outline of a human with the obvious transparency to it. If that doesn’t work I like the good ol’ last-clothes-they-wore-before-dying approach. Another great article! P.S. I hate ghosts in white sheets because they remind me too much of a certain white supremacist/anti semitic, domestic terrorist/hate group that might or might not be originally from Indiana that have been known to wear the same clothing as their uniform.
The clothes issue is an interesting one. To make my perspective clear, unless you’ve seen ghosts, I see zero reason to believe in their existence. There’s no real evidence for them as of now. However, I have seen them on enough occasions that I cannot, in good faith, deny their existence myself. Only on one of these occasions was it anything vivid enough that I could tell if it was wearing anything, but in this case, it was very vivid and very clear that it was wearing an old BSA uniform. (At the time I did not realize the top used to be the same olive drab as the pants like this ghost was wearing) So to me, yes, ghosts can be clothed. And that’s weird if you consider that they are the soul of a dead person. But the thing is, that’s just what we, as humanity, have assumed. The truth is we don’t know. We know next to nothing about when or why ghosts exist. (And as alluded to earlier, many rightfully don’t even think they exist at all.) One idea I have that might explain this could be some kind of interaction between universes or maybe even our own in a past state. This could explain clothing. But not only am I not an expert in that kind of theoretical physics, but also I think that even leaves questions to be answered. For one, why does it seem as though we only see the past? Is it because the future doesn’t exist yet? Why are some interactive? Or seem to have knowledge about the present. (Ex: I’ve heard my brother’s name whispered in my parents’ house. AFAIK no one else with that name had lived there, though I could be wrong.
My great uncle who passed away in 1978, famously did not want to go to the hospital at the end because they could measure him for his shroud at home. I’ve always associated the shroud with faith traditions, particularly Catholic traditions, and know it lingered in the cultural awareness of Irish Catholic Americans into the late 20th century. To be noted, the Irish immigrants came from the peasantry and not for the wealthier classes which would mean on a practical note, a length of cloth would be more financially acceptable than burying clothes that could be passed on and remade…and the religious considerations
Great article! I would love more in this format as I’m always wanting to include more historical influence in my dress. I’m also appreciative of the male/ more masculine examples since articles like this have a tendency to be more specifically aimed towards women. Thanks for this, you’ve really inspired me 🙂
This article was fun to watch… My outfit today could be described as a lavender Victorian ghost since I am wearing a long sleeved ruffle necked shirt with shirred yoke along with a shin length 90 inch wide drawstring skirt. I’m really just dressed for the 86*F heat.. I have a similar outfit in pale blue and another in cream muslin. I thought I was doing Cottagecore but Victorian Ghostcore as a label is fine with me.
A vintage nightgown/peignoir would be ideal I think, for adding a floaty sheer layer over the top of an outfit. White lace shawls/over skirts or dresses would achieve a similar effect I think (thrift stores are great for finding lace tablecloths or curtains that can be turned into a variety of items). Mourning jewelry, cameos, and black jet jewelry are also great additions for a Victorian mourning vibe 😀
I’ve always been a fan of the flowing skirt, shawl flapping in the wind, pacing back & forth on a stormy night aesthetic… but that’s probably the New Englander in me with all those Widow’s Walks along the coast. On the flipside, the Midwestern Farmgirl in me is partial to the ghosts caused by horrific accidents because if you made it to adulthood in the Midwest, at least as far as my grandparent’s generation, you were more likely to die from a horrible accident than old age. The mournful widow though… that’s the aesthetic I’d be most keen to replicate for myself. Mix in a little of how I picture Jo March from Little Women (I always imagine her with a wool skirt, shirt waist she couldn’t be bothered to iron/is already wrinkled from activity, and a cardigan taken from her father… wrapping her up in his love when he’s away or maybe borrowed from Laurie on a cold day… and just never returned.) When did the cardigan become a thing? For men or women?
This was a lot of fun, Nicole! Great master class in how to add an authentic spooky vibe to your wardrobe. I’m so impressed by your choice of artwork to demonstrate your points. The late Victorian period was full of artwork that evokes strong emotions. I love a ‘puffy shirt’, for both men and women, and am always thrilled if I find something in linen, in an unusal color, that includes things like cording, pleats, and shell buttons. You are a kindred spirit, indeed. 🙂
I found some funny things about the captions. It seems most of them are the names of the painters, but 1) Ira Aldridge is the person portrayed, not the painter; the painter is James Northcote; also not much of a ghost as this is Adridge playing Othello 2) ‘nieznany malarz polski’ is Polish for ‘unknown Polish painter’.
This is giving me ideas for styling my ore autumnal and winter-y clothes, as well as an outfit to answer the door for trick-or-treating kids this halloween without going full on make-up or looking too scary. I will simply wear my long white victorian inspired nightgown and have the hallway entirely candle-lit.
My religion has us buried in the clothing we wear in Temple, which is often put on after the viewing as it’s something only those who have taken certain vows and ordinances may wear and participate in (they’re not weird or anything, and basically look like early 19th century clothing but white, and with certain parts and symbols only taught once you are able to visit temple). Luckily they are done in english for those of use who do not speak hebrew
“we”, “our”, and even the word “representation”, while only representing Victorian White European ghosts. I get that this is about dressing like a Victorian spirit, but it was the use of words like ” the history behind the visualization of ghosts”, “the version we have now” that assumed a standard understanding of ghosts. “We”, “the history”, without even an aside recognizing that this “we” and “the history” are those of white european lore.. Representation, indeed.
Victorian were also very interested in seances to talk to the dead ghosts. The mediums were young girls about fifteen years old dress up covered in a white sheet that would walk into the room and touch, talk, comfort, swear to the customer. The customer was allowed to touch and squeeze her to check if she was wearing a corset since then she was human but if she didn’t have a corset they demand her a ghost.
Quite interesting and fun to watch. These days there are way too many myths and superstitions in mainstream culture. October should be a fun month but it’s been beaten down. Folks these days forget the point is to have some fun and a good laugh at spookiness. Halloween is the best thing to ever come from Ireland.
I am always amused to see the plethora of ‘Halloween’ material created by YTubers from the USA . As usual Ms Rudolph surpasses and is the most tastefull practitioner. However all the ghosts I have met have clothed themselves in their everyday wear. Their shadowy form comes from their inability to manifest solidly because they just don’t have the psychic skill or they are slowly losing interest in the event that caused them to imprint in the material world that held them back from complete transition to spirit. If they can meet someone who is prepared to loan them energy they can become more distinct. Most are happy to let go and move on to gain healing if the psychic is strong enough to help them and not glamoured by the whole ‘i’m psychic aint that fab’ daftness. Victorians were indeed keen explorers and played with magic lanterns but such practices go back to much earlier times and I have worked in chambered tombs that had small holes allowing shadow pictures to be projected on the walls within to teach initiates.