Research into ghosts

What exactly is a ghost?

A ghost is said to be an apparition of a dead person, which is believed to appear or to become manifest to the living, typically as a nebulous image. When they are said to appear to the living, the discriptions vary widely, some reports claim that these ghosts are simply an invisible presence, wispy shapes, or realistic lifelike versions. Essentially, ghosts are human spirits stuck in purgatory between earth and the great beyond. Some theories suggest that ghosts get stuck as something is holding them to a certain location, such as a house.

When ghosts feature in a media product, they are usually wearing human clothes, despite a ghost simply being the spirit or a soul of a deceased person. A theory suggests that ghosts are usually seen wearing clothes, as they are projecting themselves in the way that they last perceieved themselves. Even if they are burnt in a fire, for example, or died in surgery, they will still appear wearing clothes because that is how they best know themselves.

In order to attempt to communicate with ghosts, humans may conduct a seance. A seance is were a medium, along with other people, will attempt to receieve spiritual messages. The medium will provide a channel in order to communicate with the spirit.

Ghosts in films/television

In The Others, the mother, her two children and their house help are all ghosts living in a house in the aftermath of the War. The mother and her children do not realise they are dead, and actually think there are ghosts living in their house, however, the house help do know they are dead.

In the Sixth Sense, the main character, Dr Malcolm Crowe, doesn't realise that he is dead, when he is shot by a former patient. Throughout the film, there are small hints towards the fact that he is dead, such as all of the clothes Malcolm wears during the film are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, including his overcoat, his blue rowing sweatshirt and the different layers of his suit.

In American Horror Story: Murder House, there are many ghosts that feature within the show, including Tate Langdon and eventually Violet Harmon. The plot of the show involves that people who die in the house stay within the house. When Violet kills herself, and comes back as a ghost (which intially she doesn't realise), she is unable to leave the grounds of the house.