Hollow Face – Optical Illusions by Sir Richard Gregory. Ghost Illusion

Will and Guy ponder how Celtic Druids used illusions at times like Halloween to impress and manipulate their worshipers.  We conjecture that witches could also manipulate ghostly images to frighten relatives of the
dead.  The effect works because illusions prey on the brain.  Our central nervous
system processes images in the present, but gets confused by pictorial memories of the past.

In modern times, it was Hermann von Helmholtz, who first described illusions as unconscious inferences from
sensory data and knowledge derived from an earlier time.  Von Helmholtz’s discoveries have been developed by Sir Richard Gregory to create the illusion in the video below.

Stage one of the optical Illusion – The
Plaster Cast
(See video below)

Stage two – Sir Richard Gregory flips the cast so we see the
reverse side

We now see a ghostly picture.

Stage
three – As the picture / cast turns so the
face appears to change its expression

Stage 4 – Sir Richard move the cast slightly and we get a
different ghostly illusion

Actual Video

Ghost Illusion

The ghost of Archbishop Laud, beheaded in 1645, is said to haunt the
library of St. John’s College, Oxford, England, where it apparently plays
football with its own head.

Ghostly Illusion – Spooky Story

Martha’s phone rang one Halloween eve.  All she could hear on the
line was moaning and groaning which sounded like her deceased husband
Albert.   More calls torment her all night.  The next
morning, All Hallows Day, she asked her son Norman to drive her to the
graveyard where Albert was laid to rest.

They discover that recently, a telegraph line line had fallen down
………..and was lying across Albert’s grave! Martha thought ‘Could it be
the phone calls she received the night before were made from beyond the
grave by Albert?’

See more Halloween ghost stories

Ghostly Story by Kate Bauer [Innkeeper]

Because of a guest, we have a confirmed ghost story. My
husband and I both experienced the same “feeling” and vision while outside working the orchard and blueberries — the funny part is I didn’t tell him about it when it happened (mine happened first and I didn’t
tell him, then his occurred some months later and he came in and told me).

My husband came in one day (about a month or so after I had my experience) and told me of his experience. Same man, same “watchful”
feeling. We both “saw” this figure in our side vision — a man watching us as we worked.

It also was a “feeling” of this voice telling us where to prune, how to do the job we were doing.

A “guiding
spirit,” we call him.

We found out later that it was Old Man Simon. How did we find out? We described this man to a guest (a relative of the Brewsters, who owned the property before us) that brought
pictures of Simon. She showed us the picture only after we described him. It was one of the original owners of this 260-year-old home!

Another Ghost Illusion

Can You See the Ethereal Girl in the Photo?

Will and Guy have found this infrared photograph that was taken by Jude
Huff-Felz during a parapsychological investigation by the Ghost Research
Society in Bachelor’s Grove Cemetery, Chicago, Illinois, USA on August 10,
1991.

We are unable to ascertain its veracity, although some experts believe it
to be true.

Pumpkin Carvings

This pumpkin was carved by Gareth Glover, a horticulture student from
Hull, UK. He says that his “normal work stops” in the run-up to Halloween as
he carves bespoke pumpkins to order.

Footnote:
Please send us your ghost illusions.