Immurement (from the Latin im- , "in" and murus , "wall"; literally "walling in"), also called immuration or live entombment , is a form of imprisonment , usually until death, in which someone is placed within an enclosed space without exits. This includes instances where people have been enclosed in extremely tight confinement, such as within a coffin . When used as a means of execution , the prisoner is simply left to die from starvation or dehydration . This form of execution is distinct from being buried alive , in which the victim typically dies of asphyxiation . By contrast, immurement has also occasionally been used as an early form of life imprisonment , in which cases the victims were regularly fed and given water. There have been a few cases in which people have survived for months or years after being walled up, as well as some people, such as anchorites , who have volunteered to be immured.
161-468: A White Lady (or woman in white ) is a type of female ghost . She is typically dressed in a white dress or similar garment, reportedly seen in rural areas and associated with local legends of tragedy. White Lady legends are found in many countries around the world. Common to many of these legends is an accidental or impending death, murder, or suicide and the theme of loss, betrayed by a husband or fiancé, and unrequited love. In popular medieval legend ,
322-499: A séance . Other terms associated with it are apparition, haunt, haint, phantom, poltergeist , shade , specter, spirit, spook, wraith, demon , and ghoul . The belief in the existence of an afterlife , as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms , and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic —are specifically designed to rest
483-560: A Swedish soldier are also said to be immured in one of the tunnels after she had fallen in love with the Swedish soldier and requested her father to allow her to marry him. According to another legend, a maiden and a servant have been immured after a failed attempt at spying on Germans wanting to know what their plans were for what is now Latvia. In book 3 of his History of the Peloponnesian War , Thucydides goes into great detail on
644-412: A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore , descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes to realistic, lifelike forms. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy , or in spiritism as
805-571: A "zayan" (spirit). She joined other spirit maidens (some 350 of them), who haunt fiancés on their wedding day, bewitching them with their beauty and dragging them to the netherworld. In the village of Koprivica near Zaječar there is a legend about a ghost of a woman in a wedding dress that walks around at night scaring people. This ghost is most commonly referred to as the Dead Woman in White (Serbian cyrillic: Мртва Жена у Белом). There are two stories about
966-596: A White Lady is fabled to appear by day as well as by night in a house in which a family member is soon to die. They also appear within photos just before or after death. According to The Nuttall Encyclopædia , these spirits were regarded as the ghosts of deceased ancestors. Called Dama Branca or Mulher de Branco in Portuguese , the Brazilian Lady in White is said to be the ghost of a young woman who died of childbirth or violent causes. According to legend, she appears as
1127-461: A White Lady's Meadow and White Lady's Lane, and St Athan also has a tradition of Y Ladi Wen. The "Suscon Screamer" is a woman dressed in white that many believe they have seen and/or heard on Suscon Road in Pittston Township, Pennsylvania . Suscon Road is long state route that goes on for miles and turns into Thornhurst Road and Bear Lake Road. Many say they could hear bloodcurdling screams in
1288-501: A bus stop at its junction with the main street is called Vésenaz , La Dame . Some two and a half kilometers to the South in the municipality of Vandœuvres another street is named Chemin de la Blanche . The neighbouring municipality of Choulex still bears the name of the family, whose lineage Humbert as the first lord of the castle was from and which was first mentioned in a document almost nine hundred years ago. In late September 2019,
1449-451: A church to shelter from the heat, and Peter took a photo of ill Diane sitting in a pew inside, with a vague image of a woman in old-fashioned white with a bonnet sitting behind her. After that, she recovered from her illness. An old ballad is sung about a ghost, that is haunting Okehampton Castle : "My Ladye hath a sable coach, with horses two an four. My Ladye hath a gaunt blood-hound, that goeth before. My Ladye's coach hath nodding plumes,
1610-418: A class of priestesses whose principal duty was to maintain the sacred fire dedicated to Vesta (goddess of the home and the family), and they lived under a strict vow of chastity and celibacy. If that vow of chastity was broken, the offending priestess was immured alive as follows: When condemned by the college of pontifices, she was stripped of her vittae and other badges of office, was scourged, attired like
1771-459: A continued presence in some form of afterlife , the spirit of a deceased person that persists in the material world (a ghost) is regarded as an unnatural or undesirable state of affairs and the idea of ghosts or revenants is associated with a reaction of fear. This is universally the case in pre-modern folk cultures, but fear of ghosts also remains an integral aspect of the modern ghost story , Gothic horror , and other horror fiction dealing with
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#17328516631991932-552: A corpse, placed in a closed litter, borne through the forum attended by her weeping kindred with all the ceremonies of a real funeral to a rising ground called the Campus Sceleratus. This was located just within the city walls, close to the Colline gate. A small vault underground had been previously prepared, containing a couch, a lamp, and a table with a little food. The pontifex maximus, having lifted up his hands to heaven and uttered
2093-657: A culture of human sacrifice in the construction of large buildings in East and Southeast Asia. Such practices ranged from da sheng zhuang (打生樁) in China, hitobashira in Japan, and myosade (မြို့စတေး) in Burma. The folklore of many Southeastern European peoples refers to immurement as the mode of death for the victim sacrificed during the completion of a construction project, such as a bridge or fortress (mostly real buildings). The Castle of Shkodra
2254-557: A day. Gregory of Tours , in his writings, related two stories of immurement, including a story of a nun in Poitiers who was immured in a cell at her own request after supposedly receiving a vision as well as a story about Salvius of Albi who was immured for a period prior to becoming bishop. In Catholic monastic tradition, there existed a type of enforced, solitary confinement for nuns or monks who had broken their vows of chastity, or espoused heretical ideas. As Henry Charles Lea puts it,
2415-445: A drinking cup near each body, then the pit was immured, and covered with earth The Neo-Assyrian Empire is notorious for its brutal repression techniques, not the least of those reasons being because several of its rulers congratulating themselves upon the vengeance they wrought by going into detail of how they dealt with their enemies. Here is a commemoration Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BC) made that includes immurement: I erected
2576-441: A family. One night the parents woke to their boy screaming, "The White Lady!" By the time they arrived at his bedside, she had vanished. However, the boy reported that the lady had been angry and tried to take him away after he refused to accompany her to a box of gold buried in the vaults below. She could not rest while it was there. The same events took place the following three nights. When the child began sleeping with his parents,
2737-601: A female dubbed "the woman in the white dress" or "an bhean bhán" (the white woman) in an abandoned house next to the white river in Dunleer , Co. Louth. The White Lady is the name of a female ghost that lives in Verdala Palace in the small forest of Buskett , Rabat, Malta . Legend has it that many years ago, the niece of Grand Master de Rohan, was engaged to be married to a suitor whom she did not love. Her father told her that she must always do as her fiancé said. The wedding day
2898-479: A few were walled up alive in pillars of mortar, there to perish miserably. The remains of these living tombs may still be seen outside Derwaze-i-kassah-khane ("Slaughter-house Gate") at Shiraz, while another series lines the road as it enters the little town of Abade ... Immurement was practiced in Mongolia as recently as the early 20th century. It is not clear that all thus immured were meant to die of starvation. In
3059-474: A folk song sung by a Herzegovinian storyteller named Old Rashko . The version of the song in the Serbian language is the oldest collected version of the legend, and the first one which earned literary fame. The three brothers in the legend were represented by members of the noble Mrnjavčević family , Vukašin , Uglješa and Gojko. In 1824, Karadžić sent a copy of his folksong collection to Jacob Grimm , who
3220-402: A ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death. Seeing one's own ghostly double or " fetch " is a related omen of death. The impetus of haunting is commonly considered an unnatural death. White ladies were reported to appear in many rural areas, and supposed to have died tragically or suffered trauma in life. White Lady legends are found around the world. Common to many of them
3381-624: A girl was killed after her prom night on the road. This is probably why the young woman allegedly is seen wearing white to this day. The girl is oftentimes called the Suscon Screamer. Many say if you honk the horn of your car three times at night in the area of the old railroad bridge, you could hear the screams of the Screamer and might even catch a glimpse of her. A White Lady is said to haunt Durand-Eastman Park in Rochester, New York . Also known as
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#17328516631993542-437: A hidden cauldron, changing physical characteristics, and a chastising morality. Here, a spirit was long said to wander the area until a man finally approached her. When such a man eventually did so, the spirit led him to a treasure (a cauldron filled with gold) hidden under a heavy stone within the old tower of Ogmore Castle and allowed the man to take half the treasure for himself. However, the man later returned and took more of
3703-437: A knight living in the castle did not approve of her father's choice of a young nobleman as her future husband. Said knight also pillaged surrounding areas and took prisoners to live in the tunnels, among these a handsome young man whom the daughter took a liking to, helping him escape. Her fate was not so lucky as the knight and his future son-in-law punished her by immuring her in one of the tunnels. Another nobleman's daughter and
3864-503: A local young man living in nearby Oreston , but being forbidden by her family. Despite this, she took a boat one night onto the lake whilst wearing her white clothing. The boat supposedly capsized, with the White Lady disappearing under the water. Others have claimed the Lady's lover was in the boat with her when it sank. Since then, many have told of supposedly seeing the White Lady sitting beside
4025-509: A long history, and Francesca Medioli writes the following in her essay "Dimensions of the Cloister": At Lodi in 1662 Sister Antonia Margherita Limera stood trial for having introduced a man into her cell and entertained him for a few days; she was sentenced to be walled in alive on a diet of bread and water. In the same year, the trial for breach of enclosure and sexual intercourse against the cleric Domenico Cagianella and Sister Vincenza Intanti of
4186-509: A motorcyclist picking up a female hitchhiker on the same stretch of road. A few miles later, the motorcyclist, upon turning around, noticed the passenger had vanished. In one instance, a car crashed into a tree, killing 6 people. It is rumored to be the white lady's curse. In another story, a White Lady is seen retracing her steps; she was said to have jumped off the Portchester Castle while trying to retrieve her fallen child. Her spirit
4347-478: A newspaper report from 1914, it is written: ... the prisons and dungeons of the Far Eastern country contain a number of refined Chinese shut up for life in heavy iron-bound coffins, which do not permit them to sit upright or lie down. These prisoners see daylight for only a few minutes daily when the food is thrown into their coffins through a small hole. In 1906, Hadj Mohammed Mesfewi , a cobbler from Marrakesh ,
4508-578: A pale woman in a long white dress or a sleeping gown. Although usually speechless, she will occasionally recount her misfortunes. The origins of the myth are not clear. Luís da Câmara Cascudo's Dicionário do Folclore Brasileiro (Brazilian Folklore Dictionary) proposes that the ghost is related to the violent deaths of young white women who were murdered by their fathers or husbands in an "honor" killing . The most frequent reasons for these honor killings were adultery (actual or suspected), denial of sex, or abuse. Monteiro Lobato in his book Urupês describes
4669-465: A punishment for treason. The subsequent growth of a rowan tree at the location of her execution, whose flowers were as white as her innocence and berries as red as her blood, inspired a ballad. Similar legends stem from Haapsalu , Kuressaare , Põlva and Visby . According to a Latvian legend as many as three people might have been immured in tunnels under the Grobiņa Castle . A daughter of
4830-550: A punishment of robbers in Persia , even into the early 20th century. Some ambiguous evidence exists of immurement as a practice of coffin-type confinement in Mongolia . One famous, but likely mythical, immurement was that of Anarkali by Emperor Akbar because of her supposed relationship with Prince Saleem . Isolated incidents of immurement, rather than elements of continuous traditions, are attested or alleged from numerous other parts of
4991-608: A rather different procedure was meted out to four clerics in the 1409 case, guilty of the same offence. Instead of being burned alive, they were locked into a wooden casket that was hung up in the Perlachturm , and they starved to death. After confessing in an Inquisition Court to an alleged conspiracy involving lepers, the Jewry, the King of Granada, and the Sultan of Babylon, Guillaume Agassa, head of
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5152-419: A secret prayer, opened the litter, led forth the culprit, and placed her on the steps of the ladder which gave access to the subterranean cell. He delivered her over to the common executioner and his assistants, who led her down, drew up the ladder, and having filled the pit with earth until the surface was level with the surrounding ground, left her to perish deprived of all the tributes of respect usually paid to
5313-496: A sixteen-year-old during the French occupation of Geneva at the beginning of the 19th century to shoot some animals for dinner with his widowed and impoverished mother. He was hit by an ice-cold breath of air, which made him shudder, his blood clot and his hair stand on end. In the darkness, a white shadow came out of the tower uttering hollow groans. It touched him and disappeared. The young man tried to flee but could not lift his feet from
5474-503: A slender pittance of food and water was deposited in it and the awful words Vade in pace , were the signal for immuring the criminal. It is not likely that, in latter times, this punishment was often resorted to; but, among the ruins of the abbey of Coldingham were some years ago discovered the remains of a female skeleton which, from the shape of the niche, and the position of the figure seemed to be that of an immured nun. The practice of immuring nuns or monks on breaches of chastity has
5635-406: A specific period to atone for their transgressions in life. Their penance was generally related to their sin. For example, the ghost of a man who had been abusive to his servants was condemned to tear off and swallow bits of his own tongue; the ghost of another man, who had neglected to leave his cloak to the poor, was condemned to wear the cloak, now "heavy as a church tower". These ghosts appeared to
5796-476: A specific person (e.g. Elizabeth Báthory ). Indonesian version of the white lady is called kuntilanak . In Charles Fort (Ireland) , there is the story of a white lady, the ghost of a young woman that died on her wedding night. Her death was a suicide which followed the death of her husband at the hand of her father. She came back as a ghost to search for her father, and now every year on her marriage night you can hear her scream. People also report sightings of
5957-410: A type of human sacrifice to make buildings sturdy has many tales attached to it as well. Skeletal remains have been, from time to time, found behind walls and in hidden rooms and on several occasions have been asserted to be evidence of such sacrificial practices or of such a form of punishment. According to Finnish legends, a young maiden was wrongfully immured into the castle wall of Olavinlinna as
6118-471: A variety of illnesses to the action of ghosts, while others were caused by gods or demons. There was widespread belief in ghosts in ancient Egyptian culture . The Hebrew Bible contains few references to ghosts, associating spiritism with forbidden occult activities cf. Deuteronomy 18:11. The most notable reference is in the First Book of Samuel (I Samuel 28:3–19 KJV), in which a disguised King Saul has
6279-410: A wall in front of the great gate of the city. I flayed the chiefs and covered this wall with their skins. Some of them were walled in alive in the masonry; others were impaled along the wall. I flayed a great number of them in my presence, and I clothed the wall with their skins. I collected their heads in the form of crowns, and their corpses I pierced in the shape of garlands ... My figure blooms on
6440-470: A white lady haunts the remains of a monastery in the forest of the Uhlberg near to the famous Altmühltal with its limestone-underground and many potholes. In Hungarian mythology , a white lady was the ghost of a girl or young woman that died violently; usually, young women who committed suicide, were murdered, or died while imprisoned. The ghost is usually bound to a specific location and is often identified as
6601-509: A white lady. The castle was built in 1260 and demolished in 1896 with only an old tower remaining. According to legend, a duchess named Jakobine and her lover were murdered by her jealous husband. Her ghost was said to be seen before each of a series of fires that plagued the castle. Friedland in Brandenburg is claimed to be haunted by a white lady, supposedly the daughter of a baronet cursed by her father for not giving him an heir. According to
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6762-506: A woman in white at the scene. A medium claimed that this was a vengeful spirit named "Dao" or "Deuan" who was after them and took their lives. Thirteen tales within England also suggest that the White Lady may be a victim of murder or suicide who died before she could tell anyone the location of some hidden treasure. Around 2019, the castle of Blenkinsopp in Northumberland was occupied by
6923-408: A young woman starved to death by her husband because he suspected she was in love with a black slave and only gave her the stewed meat of his corpse for food. White Ladies are called Dames blanches in French. A popular legend claims that the surroundings of Montmorency Falls near Quebec City are haunted by a white lady. It is said to be the spirit of a young French-Canadian woman whose fiancé
7084-781: Is ahma , Old Norse has andi m., önd f.), it appears to be a dental suffix derivative of pre-Germanic *ghois-d-oz ('fury, anger'), which is comparable to Sanskrit héḍas ('anger') and Avestan zōižda - ('terrible, ugly'). The prior Proto-Indo-European form is reconstructed as *ǵʰéys-d-os , from the root *ǵʰéys- , which is reflected in Old Norse geisa ('to rage') and *geiski ('fear'; cf. geiskafullr 'full of fear'), in Gothic usgaisjan ('to terrify') and usgaisnan ('to be terrified'), as well as in Avestan zōiš- (cf. zōišnu 'shivering, trembling'). The Germanic word
7245-568: Is a Scots word for ghost , spectre , or apparition . It appeared in Scottish Romanticist literature, and acquired the more general or figurative sense of portent or omen . In 18th- to 19th-century Scottish literature, it also applied to aquatic spirits. The word has no commonly accepted etymology; the OED notes "of obscure origin" only. An association with the verb writhe was the etymology favored by J. R. R. Tolkien . Tolkien's use of
7406-429: Is also home to another White Lady story. Archival evidence suggests that the forest was once home to a castle farm that was built in 1396. In the 17th century (estimated 1667), this site was burned down killing the daughter of Lord Lambert Reynart . This historical event has spawned a few variations on a White Lady ghost story based around the death of the woman who burned with the castle farm. The most common versions of
7567-591: Is also included in the Ancient Bohemian Legends . The most famous white lady of Estonia is said to reside in Haapsalu Castle . According to the legend, a canon fell in love with her, so she hid in the castle disguised as a choir boy, but she was discovered when the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek visited Haapsalu and subsequently immured in the wall of the chapel for her crime. To this day, she is said to look out of
7728-405: Is characterized in various ways including being a terrifying ghost who may ask for help if you speak to her. Y Ladi Wen is also associated with restless spirits guarding hidden treasures, with perhaps the best-known example of this at Ogmore , Bridgend . The Ogmore apparition story is also noteworthy for containing many of the archetypal aspects common to such Celtic and Welsh stories, including
7889-568: Is common in Balkan poetry, cf. Miorița or the Song of Çelo Mezani ), leave Rozafa, the wife of the honest brother, to die. She accepts her fate, but asks to leave exposed her foot (to rock the infant son's cradle), the breast (to feed him) and the hand (to stroke his hair). One of the most famous versions of the same legend is the Serbian epic poem called The Building of Skadar (Зидање Скадра, Zidanje Skadra ) published by Vuk Karadžić , after he recorded
8050-432: Is dead but her refusal would mean his damnation. This reflects a popular British belief that the dead haunted their lovers if they took up with a new love without some formal release. " The Unquiet Grave " expresses a belief even more widespread, found in various locations over Europe: ghosts can stem from the excessive grief of the living, whose mourning interferes with the dead's peaceful rest. In many folktales from around
8211-410: Is no-one left to remember the one who died. In many cultures, malignant, restless ghosts are distinguished from the more benign spirits involved in ancestor worship. Ancestor worship typically involves rites intended to prevent revenants , vengeful spirits of the dead, imagined as starving and envious of the living. Strategies for preventing revenants may either include sacrifice , i.e., giving
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#17328516631998372-604: Is often compared with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia in folklore . She was allowed to live in immurement until she died, four years after being sealed, ultimately dying of causes other than starvation; evidently her rooms were well supplied with food. According to other sources (written documents form the visit of priests, July 1614), she was able to move freely and unhindered in the castle, more akin to house arrest . A particularly severe form of asceticism within Christianity
8533-521: Is recorded as masculine only, but likely continues a neuter s -stem. The original meaning of the Germanic word would thus have been an animating principle of the mind , in particular capable of excitation and fury (compare óðr ). In Germanic paganism , " Germanic Mercury ", and the later Odin , was at the same time the conductor of the dead and the "lord of fury" leading the Wild Hunt . Besides denoting
8694-484: Is said to haunt the castle. At Worstead Church in Norfolk , there are stories of ghostly woman in white. Her story is diverse, from being a good ghost to a ghost who brings death to people. She is known locally as "White Lady" and her stories are said to have been around since the 1830s. Said that she often appears during Christmas Eve . The most famous case occurred in 1975, when Peter Berthelot and his wife Diane visited
8855-403: Is that of anchorites , who typically allowed themselves to be immured, and subsisting on minimal food. For example, in the 4th century AD, one nun named Alexandra immured herself in a tomb for ten years with a tiny aperture enabling her to receive meager provisions. Saint Jerome ( c. 340–420 ) spoke of one follower who spent his entire life in a cistern, consuming no more than five figs
9016-440: Is that there is no proof that ghosts exist. Their existence is impossible to falsify , and ghost hunting has been classified as pseudoscience . Despite centuries of investigation, there is no scientific evidence that any location is inhabited by the spirits of the dead. Historically, certain toxic and psychoactive plants (such as datura and hyoscyamus niger ), whose use has long been associated with necromancy and
9177-416: Is the concept of a fetch , the visible ghost or spirit of a person yet alive. A notion of the transcendent , supernatural , or numinous , usually involving entities like ghosts, demons , or deities , is a cultural universal . In pre-literate folk religions , these beliefs are often summarized under animism and ancestor worship . Some people believe the ghost or spirit never leaves Earth until there
9338-571: Is the subject of such stories in both the Albanian oral tradition and in the Slavic one : the Albanian version is The Legend of Rozafa , in which three brothers uselessly toiled at building walls that disappeared at night: when told that they had to bury one of their wives in the wall, they pledge to choose the one that will bring them luncheon the next day, and not to warn their respective spouse. Two brothers do, however (the topos of two fellows betraying one
9499-661: Is the theme of losing a child or husband and a sense of purity, as opposed to the Lady in Red ghost that is mostly attributed to a jilted lover or prostitute. The White Lady ghost is often associated with an individual family line or regarded as a harbinger of death similar to a banshee . Legends of ghost ships have existed since the 18th century; most notable of these is the Flying Dutchman . This theme has been used in literature in The Rime of
9660-533: Is thought to be Mary Frances "Fran" Burwell, of the Burwell family of Virginia . "The legend has it that she stayed on the front porch waiting for her husband to come home from the Civil War, but he never did," says Adam Stupin, founder of SouthWest Virginia Ghost Hunters. "The Ghostly Sphinx of Metedeconk" by Stephen Crane recounts the tale of a White Lady whose lover was drowned in 1815. Ghost In folklore ,
9821-620: Is told to haunt Berry Pomeroy Castle (near to Totnes in Devon) as a harbinger of death to everyone to see her in the dungeon of the St.Margaret-tower. Matilda is said to have been starved to death by her sister in that dungeon. Edward Montague created a novel titled "The Castle of Berry Pomeroy". Within Radford , the white Lady of Radford is a young woman from the Harris family. Her legend tells of her wishing to see
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#17328516631999982-479: Is undisputed that Christmas Eve is said to be her preferred timing. On some occasions, the whole castle and its former inhabitants were reportedly resurrected in its old glory for the night. La Dame Blanche herself is rumoured to be of striking beauty and wearing a diadem . In a version from 1870, which was published in 1902, a certain Jean Bahut told the story that he went out to the castle ruins on Christmas Eve as
10143-762: The Sardar i Kull , or military high commander, Aziz Khan. Eastwick notes that he "did not strike me as one who would greatly err on the side of leniency". Eastwick was told that just recently, Aziz Khan had ordered 14 robbers walled up alive, two of them head-downwards. Staying for the year 1887–1888 primarily in Shiraz , Edward Granville Browne noted the gloomy reminders of a particularly bloodthirsty governor there, Firza Ahmed, who in his four years of office (ending circa 1880) had caused, for example, more than 700 hands cut off for various offences. Browne continues: Besides these minor punishments, many robbers and others suffered death; not
10304-592: The Czech Republic is the ghost of Perchta of Rožmberk at Rožmberk Castle . Perchta of Rožmberk (c. 1429–1476) was a daughter of an important Bohemian nobleman, Oldřich II of Rožmberk . She married another nobleman, Jan of Lichtenštejn (John of Liechtenstein ) in 1449. The marriage was quite unhappy. One reason may have been that Perchta's father was reluctant to pay the agreed dowry. During her married life, Perchta wrote many letters to her father and brothers with colourful descriptions of her unhappy family life and
10465-684: The Geneva Chamber Orchestra performed a series of five concerts in the inner court of the castle ruins. The collaboration by four Geneva-born and/or -based artists, included a video installation and was titled Qui a Peur de la Dame Blanche? : "Who is afraid of the White Lady?" In Thailand, there is a story of teenagers going into a deserted house in Thawi Watthana , a suburb in Bangkok to look for ghosts and afterwards died from accidents. In each case, there were claims to have been sightings of
10626-561: The Philippines . White Ladies are often used to convey horror and mystery to young children for storytelling. Sightings of White Ladies are common around the country. The most prominent one is the White Lady of Balete Drive in Quezon City . It is said that it is the ghost of a long-haired woman in a white dress who, according to legend, died in a car accident while driving along Balete Drive. Most stories about her were told by taxi drivers doing
10787-489: The Witch of Endor summon the spirit or ghost of Samuel . The soul and spirit were believed to exist after death, with the ability to assist or harm the living, and the possibility of a second death. Over a period of more than 2,500 years, Egyptian beliefs about the nature of the afterlife evolved constantly. Many of these beliefs were recorded in hieroglyph inscriptions, papyrus scrolls and tomb paintings. The Egyptian Book of
10948-463: The abolition of slavery and women's suffrage . By the late 1880s, credibility of the informal movement weakened, due to accusations of fraud among mediums, and formal Spiritualist organizations began to appear. Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist churches in the United States and United Kingdom. Spiritism, or French spiritualism, is based on
11109-511: The canton of Geneva . It centers around a woman without a name, supposedly the first wife of the knight Humbert de Choulex , under whose leadership the castle was constructed in a swampy area at the beginning of the 14th century. He reportedly repudiated her when she did not give birth to a son. The ghost has been linked to the disappearance of people and deaths from unexplained causes. It is unclear whether such supposed appearances occurred rather during moonless nights or full moon . However, it
11270-488: The middle and upper classes, while the corresponding movement in continental Europe and Latin America is known as Spiritism . The religion flourished for a half century without canonical texts or formal organization, attaining cohesion by periodicals, tours by trance lecturers, camp meetings, and the missionary activities of accomplished mediums. Many prominent Spiritualists were women. Most followers supported causes such as
11431-517: The motif index designation E200–E599 ("Ghosts and other revenants"). The English word ghost continues Old English gāst . Stemming from Proto-Germanic *gaistaz , it is cognate with Old Frisian gāst , Old Saxon gēst , Old Dutch gēst , and Old High German geist . Although this form is not attested in North Germanic and East Germanic languages (the equivalent word in Gothic
11592-646: The underworld , have been shown to contain anticholinergic compounds that are pharmacologically linked to dementia (specifically DLB ) as well as histological patterns of neurodegeneration . Recent research has indicated that ghost sightings may be related to degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease . Common prescription medication and over-the-counter drugs (such as sleep aids ) may also, in rare instances, cause ghost-like hallucinations, particularly zolpidem and diphenhydramine . Older reports linked carbon monoxide poisoning to ghost-like hallucinations. In folklore studies , ghosts fall within
11753-468: The Ancient Mariner by Coleridge. Ghosts are often depicted as being covered in a shroud and/or dragging chains. A place where ghosts are reported is described as haunted , and often seen as being inhabited by spirits of deceased who may have been former residents or were familiar with the property. Supernatural activity inside homes is said to be mainly associated with violent or tragic events in
11914-652: The Baptistery's window and grieve for her beloved man. According to legend, she can be seen on clear August full-moon nights. White Ladies are called Witte Wiwer in northern Germany and Weiße Frauen in Standard German . Stories of white lady ghosts are associated with residential castles of the Hohenzollern family. Two women are supposed to be the historical basis of a ghost haunting the Plassenburg. According to legend,
12075-544: The Dead compiles some of the beliefs from different periods of ancient Egyptian history. In modern times, the fanciful concept of a mummy coming back to life and wreaking vengeance when disturbed has spawned a whole genre of horror stories and films. Ghosts appeared in Homer 's Odyssey and Iliad , in which they were described as vanishing "as a vapor, gibbering and whining into the earth". Homer's ghosts had little interaction with
12236-500: The Lady in the Lake, the 19th-century White Lady wanders the park area, obsessively looking for her daughter's body. The latter was slain by a boyfriend or group of hoodlums, depending on the story you hear. Legend has it that the human White Lady either killed herself in grief, or died alone and heartbroken. "The Lady in White" or the "White Lady of Avenel" is the most commonly reported apparition at Avenel (Bedford, Virginia) . The apparition
12397-475: The Plassenburg is the unfortunate widow Bertha of Rosenberg from Bohemia, overthrown by the heathen Perchta . A white lady ghost, said to be a harbinger of death and misfortune, was claimed to be seen in the Berliner Schloss in 1598 shortly before the death of John George of Brandenburg , and again in 1618, 1625, up until 1940. The castle is the residence of the kings of Prussia , and the stories associate
12558-555: The Scottish wraith (of obscure origin), phantom (via French ultimately from Greek phantasma , compare fantasy ) and apparition . The term shade in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin umbra , in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld . The term poltergeist is a German word, literally a "noisy ghost", for a spirit said to manifest itself by invisibly moving and influencing objects. Wraith
12719-487: The White Lady no longer disturbed him, but he never again traveled through the castle alone for fear of her. The White Lady (also known as the "Running Lady") of Beeford , East Yorkshire resides on the "Beeford Straight," a stretch of road between Beeford and Brandesburton . Motorists have reported her apparition running across the Beeford Straight toward the junction of North Frodingham . Anecdotal tales also report
12880-463: The White Lady. Many sources have said a reporter manufactured this legend in the 1950s as a combination of multiple stories from the area. One are from Balangiga Ladies dressed in White which were massacred together with the Male Population of it, along with an Old Church, sigthings reported at Pagsanghan, Samar too. "The Maidens of Uley" is an East Siberian legend of the west Buryad people from
13041-568: The adjective wit means "white", it may originally refer to the Germanic word wid , related to English "wit" and "wise", and so might be better understood as "wise women", as they are known in Germany, where they are connected to the Völva . They are believed to dwell in tumuli , the Hunebedden and on the moors. Wisps of mist and fog banks are sometimes called witte wieven . The Schinveldse Bossen forest
13202-442: The area. The term is a Dutch adaptation of the French "La Madame Blanche." It is now protected as a cultural-historical site. In popular culture, Dutch singer Joep Rademakers mentions this ghost in his song: "t Sjilves Paradies". Dutch symphonic black metal band Carach Angren also has a full concept album dedicated to this version of The White Lady. White Ladies, indigenously known as kaperosa, are popular ghost story topics in
13363-465: The bad treatment by Jan of Lichtenštejn. Some 32 of these letters had been handed down. Legend has it that as her husband was dying, he asked for her forgiveness for his treatment of her. Perchta refused, and her husband cursed her. After her death, she returned as a ghost to her family holdings. According to legends, the ghost was most apparent in the settlements of Rožmberk , Český Krumlov , Jindřichův Hradec , Třeboň and Telč . The story of White Lady
13524-470: The ballad continued to be admired by generations of folksingers and ballad scholars. A very similar Romanian legend, that of Meşterul Manole , tells of the building of the Curtea de Argeș Monastery : ten expert masons, among whom Master Manole himself, are ordered by Neagu Voda to build a beautiful monastery, but incur the same fate, and decide to immure the wife who will bring them luncheon. Manole, working on
13685-609: The baths at Chaeronea by the ghost of a murdered man. The ghost's loud and frightful groans caused the people of the town to seal up the doors of the building. Another celebrated account of a haunted house from the ancient classical world is given by Pliny the Younger ( c. 50 AD ). Pliny describes the haunting of a house in Athens , which was bought by the Stoic philosopher Athenodorus , who lived about 100 years before Pliny. Knowing that
13846-511: The behest of Wazir Khan of Kunjpura , the Governor of Sirhind. The three shrines exist within this Gurdwara complex to mark the exact spot where these tragic events were witnessed in 1705. Jezzar Pasha , the Ottoman governor of provinces in modern Lebanon, and Palestine from 1775 to 1804, was infamous for his cruelties. When building the new walls of Beirut , he was charged with, among other things,
14007-412: The building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide—sometimes in the recent or ancient past. However, not all hauntings are at a place of a violent death, or even on violent grounds. Many cultures and religions believe the essence of a being, such as the ' soul ', continues to exist. Some religious views argue that the 'spirits' of those who have died have not 'passed over' and are trapped inside
14168-619: The context for these reported visits by the murdered boy. Haunted houses are featured in the 9th-century Arabian Nights (such as the tale of Ali the Cairene and the Haunted House in Baghdad ). Renaissance magic took a revived interest in the occult , including necromancy . In the era of the Reformation and Counter Reformation, there was frequently a backlash against unwholesome interest in
14329-449: The convent of San Salvatore in Ariano had an identical outcome. In the ancient Sumerian city of Ur some graves (as early as 2500 BC.) clearly show the burial of attendants, along with that of the principal dead person. In one such grave, as Gerda Lerner wrote on page 60 of her book The Creation of Patriarchy : The human sacrifices were probably first drugged or poisoned, as evidenced by
14490-509: The convict's head out in the open. According to him, many of these individuals would implore passers-by to cut off their heads, an amelioration of the punishment forbidden by law. John Fryer , travelling Persia in the 1670s, writes the following: From this Plain to Lhor , both in the Highways, and on the high Mountains, were frequent Monuments of Thieves immured in Terror of others who might commit
14651-412: The countess Kunigunda of Orlamünde murdered her two children because she believed this could enable her to marry Albert of Nuremberg, who married Sophie von Henneberg († 1372) instead of her. She became a nun and died as an abbess of the monastery Himmelskron. A white lady ghost reportedly appeared in 1486, 1540, 1554 and 1677 as a harbinger of misfortune. A variation of the tale holds that the white lady of
14812-408: The custom of binding the dead persists, for example, in rural Anatolia . Nineteenth-century anthropologist James Frazer stated in his classic work The Golden Bough that souls were seen as the creature within that animated the body. Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically or literally depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it appears to have been widely held that
14973-417: The dark arts, typified by writers such as Thomas Erastus . The Swiss Reformed pastor Ludwig Lavater supplied one of the most frequently reprinted books of the period with his Of Ghosts and Spirits Walking By Night. The Child Ballad " Sweet William's Ghost " (1868) recounts the story of a ghost returning to his fiancée begging her to free him from his promise to marry her. He cannot marry her because he
15134-524: The dead food and drink to pacify them, or magical banishment of the deceased to force them not to return. Ritual feeding of the dead is performed in traditions like the Chinese Ghost Festival or the Western All Souls' Day . Magical banishment of the dead is present in many of the world's burial customs . The bodies found in many tumuli ( kurgan ) had been ritually bound before burial, and
15295-465: The dead residing in the spirit world can be contacted by " mediums ", who can then provide information about the afterlife . Spiritualism developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries . By 1897, it was said to have more than eight million followers in the United States and Europe, mostly drawn from
15456-436: The dead was believed to hover near the resting place of the corpse, and cemeteries were places the living avoided. The dead were to be ritually mourned through public ceremony, sacrifice, and libations, or else they might return to haunt their families. The ancient Greeks held annual feasts to honor and placate the spirits of the dead, to which the family ghosts were invited, and after which they were "firmly invited to leave until
15617-455: The death of this woman: The first states that she died in the 70s in a car accident while going on her honeymoon while the second states that she hung herself after her fiancé left her right before their wedding. She is apparently also seen stopping cars on the road between Bor and Zaječar. In August 2011, two brothers from Bor, inspired by the legend of the Woman in White, decided to prank drivers on
15778-400: The driver hath no head. My Ladye is an ashen white – as one who is long dead. "This lady is said to be a Howard-lady of the 17th century, who has murdered several husbands and children of hers. Her curse is to collect grassblades in the castle ruins until the end of time. No historical event or person could be found to correlate. The ghost of a Pomeroy-lady called Matilda (also called Margaret)
15939-545: The eastern and northern parts of the Netherlands. Sometimes referred to as witte joffers ("white maidens"), they can have a benevolent and malevolent nature. Often related with witches and/or ghosts, they show many similarities with the banshee , the fairy , and the elf . Understood as malevolent beings, they abduct or switch newborns , abduct women, and punish people who have mistreated them. As benevolent beings, they may aid in childbirth or offer good advice. Indeed, though
16100-479: The five books of the Spiritist Codification written by French educator Hypolite Léon Denizard Rivail under the pseudonym Allan Kardec reporting séances in which he observed a series of phenomena that he attributed to incorporeal intelligence (spirits). His assumption of spirit communication was validated by many contemporaries, among them many scientists and philosophers who attended séances and studied
16261-556: The following: ... and this monster had taken the name of Dgezar (Butcher) as an illustrious addition to his title. It was, no doubt, well deserved; for he had immured alive a great number of Greek Christians when he rebuilt the Walls of Barut..The heads of these miserable victims, which the butcher had left out, in order to enjoy their tortures, are still to be seen. Staying as a diplomat in Persia from 1860 to 1863, E. B. Eastwick met at one time,
16422-419: The following: Another sad sight to be seen in the desert sometimes, are brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim is walled up alive ... The victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness; then if the executioner is merciful he will cement quickly up to the face, and death comes speedily. But sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks, and in this case
16583-498: The graveyard shift, such as when a taxi crosses Balete Drive, and a stunning woman is asking for a ride. The cabbie then looks behind and sees the woman's face was full of blood and bruises, causing him to abandon his taxi in terror. In other instances, it is said that when solitary people drive on that street in the early morning, they briefly see the face of a white-clad woman in the rear-view mirror before she quickly disappears . Some accidents on this road are blamed on apparitions of
16744-470: The ground. While the White Lady rewarded his commitment to his mother with a treasure of gold and silver, she punished his wealthy and greedy relative one year later in a deadly way by tricking and locking him into the vaults. A dirt road through the fields next to the ruins is named Chemin de la Dame Blanche . In addition, a street about one kilometer to the North of the ruins bears the name Chemin de la Dame ,
16905-401: The house was supposedly haunted, Athenodorus intentionally set up his writing desk in the room where the apparition was said to appear and sat there writing until late at night when he was disturbed by a ghost bound in chains. He followed the ghost outside where it indicated a spot on the ground. When Athenodorus later excavated the area, a shackled skeleton was unearthed. The haunting ceased when
17066-526: The human spirit or soul, both of the living and the deceased, the Old English word is used as a synonym of Latin spiritus also in the meaning of "breath" or "blast" from the earliest attestations (9th century). It could also denote any good or evil spirit, such as angels and demons; the Anglo-Saxon gospel refers to the demonic possession of Matthew 12:43 as se unclæna gast . Also from the Old English period,
17227-456: The individual was meant to starve to death. However, Sir Walter Scott , himself an antiquarian, notes in a remark to his epic poem Marmion (1808): It is well known, that the religious, who broke their vows of chastity, were subjected to the same penalty as the Roman Vestals in a similar case. A small niche, sufficient to enclose their bodies, was made in the massive wall of the convent;
17388-458: The lady with several historical figures, most notably Anna Sydow, the paramour of Joachim II of Brandenburg (father of John George), who bore him two extramarital children. Sydow was imprisoned in the Spandau Citadel after Joachim's death by John George, despite his promise to care for her. She died in 1575 without regaining her freedom. The castle of Düsseldorf is claimed to be haunted by
17549-559: The lake in her ghostly form. As a result of this story, a nearby street towards one of the entrances of the park was named "White Lady Road". In Welsh tradition , Y Ladi Wen ( The White Lady ) or Dynes Mewn Gwyn ( Woman in white ) is a common apparition in the Celtic Mythology of Wales . Dressed in white, and most common at Calan Gaeaf (the Welsh Halloween), she was often evoked to warn children about bad behaviour. Y Ladi Wen
17710-533: The largest proportion and greatest number of followers. The physician John Ferriar wrote "An Essay Towards a Theory of Apparitions" in 1813 in which he argued that sightings of ghosts were the result of optical illusions . Later the French physician Alexandre Jacques François Brière de Boismont published On Hallucinations: Or, the Rational History of Apparitions, Dreams, Ecstasy, Magnetism, and Somnambulism in 1845 in which he claimed sightings of ghosts were
17871-596: The late 1650s, various sons of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan became embroiled in wars of succession, in which Aurangzeb was victorious. One of his half-brothers, Shah Shujah proved particularly troublesome, but in 1661 Aurangzeb defeated him, and Shah Shuja and his family sought the protection of the King of Arakan . According to Francois Bernier , the King reneged on his promise of asylum, and Shuja's sons were decapitated, while his daughters were immured, and died of starvation. During Mughal rule in early 18th century India,
18032-455: The legend, her ghost haunts the castle and surrounding forests, strangling anyone who talks to her. Lahneck Castle is the site of a legend of a white lady ghost claimed to be stalking the castle. It is said that the ghost is Idilia Dubb (the main character of a novel, The Diary of Miss Idilia ). There is a legend about an adulterous nobleman's wife in the civil parish of Batenhorst, Rheda-Wiedenbrück , Westphalia . The legend originates from
18193-450: The leper asylum at Lestang, was condemned in 1322 to be immured in shackles for life. Hungarian countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed ( Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian ; 1560–1614) was immured in a set of rooms in 1610 for the death of several girls, with figures being as high as several hundred, though the actual number of victims is uncertain. The highest number of victims cited during
18354-627: The like Offence; they having literally a Stone- Doublet , whereas we say metaphorically, when any is in Prison, He has it Stone Doublet on ; for these are plastered up, all but their Heads, in a round Stone Tomb, which are left out, not out of kindness, but to expose them to the Injury of the Weather, and Assaults of the Birds of Prey, who wreak their Rapin with as little Remorse, as they did devour their Fellow-Subjects. In
18515-533: The living to ask for prayers to end their suffering. Other dead souls returned to urge the living to confess their sins before their own deaths. Medieval European ghosts were more substantial than ghosts described in the Victorian age , and there are accounts of ghosts being wrestled with and physically restrained until a priest could arrive to hear its confession. Some were less solid, and could move through walls. Often they were described as paler and sadder versions of
18676-644: The local priest requested to speak to the boy directly, leading to an extended disquisition on theology. The boy narrated the trauma of death and the unhappiness of his fellow souls in Purgatory, and reported that God was most pleased with the ongoing Crusade against the Cathar heretics, launched three years earlier. The time of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France was marked by intense and prolonged warfare, this constant bloodshed and dislocation of populations being
18837-554: The medieval period an apparition of a ghost is recorded from 1211, at the time of the Albigensian Crusade . Gervase of Tilbury , Marshal of Arles , wrote that the image of Guilhem, a boy recently murdered in the forest, appeared in his cousin's home in Beaucaire , near Avignon . This series of "visits" lasted all of the summer. Through his cousin, who spoke for him, the boy allegedly held conversations with anyone who wished, until
18998-411: The memory and personality of the dead person. They traveled to the netherworld, where they were assigned a position, and led an existence similar in some ways to that of the living. Relatives of the dead were expected to make offerings of food and drink to the dead to ease their conditions. If they did not, the ghosts could inflict misfortune and illness on the living. Traditional healing practices ascribed
19159-639: The metaphorical meaning of "breath" in certain languages, such as the Latin spiritus and the Greek pneuma , which by analogy became extended to mean the soul. In the Bible , God is depicted as synthesising Adam , as a living soul, from the dust of the Earth and the breath of God. In many traditional accounts, ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance ( vengeful ghosts ), or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of
19320-524: The other hand used figuratively of any shadowy outline, or fuzzy or unsubstantial image; in optics, photography , and cinematography especially, a flare, secondary image, or spurious signal. The synonym spook is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German spôk (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via American English in the 19th century. Alternative words in modern usage include spectre (altn. specter ; from Latin spectrum ),
19481-423: The person they had been while alive, and dressed in tattered gray rags. The vast majority of reported sightings were male. There were some reported cases of ghostly armies, fighting battles at night in the forest, or in the remains of an Iron Age hillfort, as at Wandlebury , near Cambridge, England. Living knights were sometimes challenged to single combat by phantom knights, which vanished when defeated. From
19642-415: The phenomena. His work was later extended by writers like Leon Denis , Arthur Conan Doyle , Camille Flammarion , Ernesto Bozzano , Chico Xavier , Divaldo Pereira Franco, Waldo Vieira, Johannes Greber , and others. Spiritism has adherents in many countries throughout the world, including Spain, United States, Canada, Japan, Germany, France, England, Argentina, Portugal, and especially Brazil, which has
19803-465: The popular classical expectation of how a ghost should look. In the 5th century AD, the Christian priest Constantius of Lyon recorded an instance of the recurring theme of the improperly buried dead who come back to haunt the living, and who can only cease their haunting when their bones have been discovered and properly reburied. Ghosts reported in medieval Europe tended to fall into two categories:
19964-543: The property where their memories and energy are strong. There are many references to ghosts in Mesopotamian religions – the religions of Sumer , Babylon , Assyria , and other early states in Mesopotamia . Traces of these beliefs survive in the later Abrahamic religions that came to dominate the region. The concept of ghosts may predate many belief systems . Ghosts were thought to be created at time of death, taking on
20125-473: The purpose—in fact, the living tomb known as the " in pace ". In the footnote appended to this passage, Lea writes: The cruelty of the monastic system of imprisonment known as in pace , or vade in pacem , was such that those subjected to it speedily died in all the agonies of despair. In 1350 the Archbishop of Toulouse appealed to King John to interfere for its mitigation, and he issued an Ordonnance that
20286-570: The result of hallucinations . David Turner, a retired physical chemist, suggested that ball lightning could cause inanimate objects to move erratically. Immured Notable examples of immurement as an established execution practice (with death from thirst or starvation as the intended aim) are attested. Women in the Roman Empire who were Vestal Virgins faced live entombment as punishment when they were found guilty of breaking their chastity vows. Immurement has also been well established as
20447-445: The revolution that broke out at Corfu in 427 BC. Book three, chapter 81, passage five reads as follows: Death thus raged in every shape; and, as usually happens at such times, there was no length to which violence did not go; sons were killed by their fathers, and suppliants dragged from the altar or slain upon it; while some were even walled up in the temple of Dionysus and died there. The Vestal Virgins in ancient Rome constituted
20608-417: The road towards Zaječar by having one of them put on a wedding dress and approach drivers while the other filmed it. The incident was reported to the police who managed to identify the brothers however they couldn't be charged with anything since they technically didn't break any laws. A popular legend has been associated for centuries with the ruins of Rouelbeau Castle in today's municipality of Meinier in
20769-451: The roof, sees her approach, and pleads with God to unleash the elements, in order to stop her, but in vain: when she arrives, he proceeds to wall her in, pretending to be doing so in jest, with his wife increasingly crying out in pain and distress. When the building is finished, Neagu Voda takes away the masons' ladders, fearing they will build a more beautiful building, and they try to escape but all fall to their deaths. Only from Manole's fall
20930-402: The ruins; in the glutting of my rage I find my content Émile Durkheim in his work Suicide writes the following about certain followers of Amida Buddha : The sectarians of Amida have themselves immured in caverns where there is barely space to be seated and where they can breathe only through an air shaft. There they quietly allow themselves to die of hunger. By popular legend, Anarkali
21091-405: The same time next year." The 5th-century BC play Oresteia includes an appearance of the ghost of Clytemnestra , one of the first ghosts to appear in a work of fiction. The ancient Romans believed a ghost could be used to exact revenge on an enemy by scratching a curse on a piece of lead or pottery and placing it into a grave. Plutarch , in the 1st century AD, described the haunting of
21252-604: The skeleton was given a proper reburial. The writers Plautus and Lucian also wrote stories about haunted houses. In the New Testament , according to Luke 24:37–39, following his resurrection , Jesus was forced to persuade the Disciples that he was not a ghost (some versions of the Bible, such as the KJV and NKJV, use the term "spirit"). Similarly, Jesus' followers at first believed he
21413-488: The soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore. This is depicted in artwork from various ancient cultures, including such works as the Egyptian Book of the Dead , which shows deceased people in the afterlife appearing much as they did before death, including the style of dress. While deceased ancestors are universally regarded as venerable, and often believed to have
21574-478: The souls of the dead, or demons. The souls of the dead returned for a specific purpose. Demonic ghosts existed only to torment or tempt the living. The living could tell them apart by demanding their purpose in the name of Jesus Christ. The soul of a dead person would divulge its mission, while a demonic ghost would be banished at the sound of the Holy Name. Most ghosts were souls assigned to Purgatory , condemned for
21735-501: The spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary, human-like essences, though stories of ghostly armies and the ghosts of animals other than humans have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations , objects, or people they were associated with in life. According to a 2009 study by the Pew Research Center, 18% of Americans say they have seen a ghost. The overwhelming consensus of science
21896-725: The spirits of the departed. The order of the Vestal Virgins existed for about 1,000 years, but only about 10 effected immurements are attested in extant sources. Flavius Basiliscus , emperor in the Eastern Roman Empire from AD 475–476, was deposed. In winter he was sent to Cappadocia with his family, where they were imprisoned in either a dry cistern, or a tower, and perished. The historian Procopius said they died exposed to cold and hunger, while other sources, such as Priscus , merely speaks of death by starvation. The patriarch of Aquileia , Poppo of Treffen (r. 1019–1045),
22057-538: The superior of the convent should twice a month visit and console the prisoner, who, moreover, should have the right twice a month to ask for the company of one of the monks. Even this slender innovation provoked the bitterest resistance of the Dominicans and Franciscans, who appealed to Pope Clement VI., but in vain Although the vade in pace tradition therefore seems to one of perpetual confinement, but not immurement where
22218-412: The supernatural. Another widespread belief concerning ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist. This belief may have also fostered
22379-425: The tale involve the woman having two fighting lovers or of the site being burned on her wedding day by a jealous nobleman. However, all versions claim that she now wanders the forest like a ghost in a long white dress, some saying she only appears at midnight, and others saying she only appears on nights of the full moon. The site of the former castle farm is referred to as Lammendam after the ghost who supposedly haunts
22540-469: The time of the Thirty Years' War . According to the story, the nobleman encased her in the cellar of his manor Haus Aussel to assure she could not betray him while he went away to war, but he never returned, and her spirit supposedly haunts the premises forever afterwards. During recent renovations to the manor, workers found no human remains that might give factual basis to the legend. According to legend
22701-419: The torture is cruel and the agony prolonged. Men bricked up in this way have been heard groaning and calling for water at the end of three days. Travelling back and forth to Persia from 1630 to 1668 as a gem merchant, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier observed much the same custom that Hume-Griffith noted some 250 years later. Tavernier notes that immuring was principally a punishment for thieves, and that immurement left
22862-474: The tradition seems to have been that of complete, utter isolation from other human beings, but that food was, indeed, provided: In the case of Jeanne, widow of B. de la Tour, a nun of Lespenasse, in 1246, who had committed acts of both Catharan and Waldensian heresy, and had prevaricated in her confession, the sentence was confinement in a separate cell in her own convent, where no one was to enter or see her, her food being pushed in through an opening left for
23023-452: The treasure. This angered the spirit, who, with her fingers turning into claws, attacked the man as he returned home. The man became gravely ill but only died once he had confessed his greed. After that, an ailment known as Y Ladi Wen's revenge was said to befall any person who died before disclosing hidden treasure. Welsh topography inspired by sightings and tales of Y Ladi Wen can be found throughout Wales. The village of Ewenny has both
23184-421: The trial of Báthory's accomplices was 650, but this number comes from the claim by a servant girl named Susannah that Jakab Szilvássy, Báthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Báthory's private books. The book was never revealed and Szilvássy never mentioned it in his testimony. Being labeled the most prolific female serial killer in history has earned her the nickname of the "Blood Countess", and she
23345-480: The two youngest sons of Guru Gobind Singh were sentenced to death by being bricked alive for their refusal to convert to Islam and abandon the Sikh faith. On 26 December 1705, Fateh Singh was killed in this manner at Sirhind along with his elder brother, Zorawar Singh . Gurdwara Fatehgarh Sahib which is situated 5 km north of Sirhind marks the site of the execution of the two younger sons of Guru Gobind Singh at
23506-466: The village of Ulei (or Ungin), Irkutsk Oblast , Russia. The legend tells about a young lady, Bulzhuuhai Duuhai, who did not want to marry. She kept running away from her husband, who treated her disrespectfully and locked her in a black yurt , instead of a traditional white one. Bulzhuuhai then hanged herself in a barn after singing and dancing at someone else's wedding for eight days and eight nights, feeling unwanted and unloved. After her death, she became
23667-408: The woods and see a non moving bright light in the street. Sometimes people even see a young woman dressed in a white dress appear. These even typically take place by "the black bridge", an old railroad bridge that was demolished in the 1980s. Even though the bridge was demolished people could still hear and see things. According to legend, either a young bride hanged herself nearby after being married or
23828-485: The word could denote the spirit of God, viz. the " Holy Ghost ". The now-prevailing sense of "the soul of a deceased person, spoken of as appearing in a visible form" only emerges in Middle English (14th century). The modern noun does, however, retain a wider field of application, extending on one hand to "soul", "spirit", " vital principle ", " mind ", or " psyche ", the seat of feeling, thought, and moral judgement; on
23989-466: The word in the naming of the creatures known as the Ringwraiths has influenced later usage in fantasy literature. Bogey or bogy/bogie is a term for a ghost, and appears in Scottish poet John Mayne 's Hallowe'en in 1780. A revenant is a deceased person returning from the dead to haunt the living, either as a disembodied ghost or alternatively as an animated (" undead ") corpse. Also related
24150-525: The world of the living. Periodically they were called upon to provide advice or prophecy, but they do not appear to be particularly feared. Ghosts in the classical world often appeared in the form of vapor or smoke, but at other times they were described as being substantial, appearing as they had been at the time of death, complete with the wounds that killed them. By the 5th century BC, classical Greek ghosts had become haunting, frightening creatures who could work to either good or evil purposes. The spirit of
24311-540: The world, the hero arranges for the burial of a dead man. Soon after, he gains a companion who aids him and, in the end, the hero's companion reveals that he is in fact the dead man . Instances of this include the Italian fairy tale " Fair Brow " and the Swedish " The Bird 'Grip' ". Spiritualism is a monotheistic belief system or religion , postulating a belief in God , but with a distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of
24472-415: The world. Instances of immurement as an element of massacre within the context of war or revolution are also noted. Entombing living persons as a type of human sacrifice is also reported, for example, as part of grand burial ceremonies in some cultures. As a motif in legends and folklore, many tales of immurement exist. In the folklore, immurement is prominent as a form of capital punishment , but its use as
24633-684: Was a ghost (spirit) when they saw him walking on water . One of the first persons to express disbelief in ghosts was Lucian of Samosata in the 2nd century AD. In his satirical novel The Lover of Lies (c. 150 AD), he relates how Democritus "the learned man from Abdera in Thrace " lived in a tomb outside the city gates to prove that cemeteries were not haunted by the spirits of the departed. Lucian relates how he persisted in his disbelief despite practical jokes perpetrated by "some young men of Abdera" who dressed up in black robes with skull masks to frighten him. This account by Lucian notes something about
24794-503: Was a mighty secular potentate, and in 1044 he sacked Grado . The newly elected Doge of Venice , Domenico I Contarini , captured him and allegedly let him be buried up to his neck, and left guards to watch over him until he died. In 1149, Duke Otto III of Olomouc of the Moravian Přemyslid dynasty immured the abbot Deocar and 20 monks in the refectory in the monastery of Rhadisch , where they starved to death. Ostensibly this
24955-717: Was because one of the monks had fondled his wife Duranna when she had spent the night there. However, Otto III confiscated the monastery's wealth, and some said this was the motive for the immurement. In the ruins of Thornton Abbey , Lincolnshire , an immured skeleton was found behind a wall along with a table, book and a candlestick. By some, he is believed to be the fourteenth abbot, immured for some crime he had committed. The actual punishment meted out to men found guilty of paederasty (homosexual intercourse with boys) might vary between different status groups. In 1409 and 1532 in Augsburg , two men were burned alive for their offences, but
25116-402: Was found guilty of murdering 36 women (the bodies were found buried underneath his shop and nearby). Due to the nature of his crimes, he was walled up alive. For two days his screams were heard incessantly before silence by the third day. A number of cultures have tales and ballads containing as a motif the sacrifice of a human being to ensure the strength of a building. For example, there was
25277-489: Was immured between two walls in Lahore by order of Mughal Emperor Akbar for having a relationship with crown prince Salim (later Emperor Jehangir ) in the 16th century. A bazaar developed around the site, and was named Anarkali Bazaar in her honour. A tradition existed in Persia of walling up criminals and leaving them to die of hunger or thirst. The traveller M. E. Hume-Griffith stayed in Persia from 1900 to 1903, and she wrote
25438-666: Was killed by her lover after being forced to marry another man. Many have claimed to see this spirit, always after eight o'clock in the evening. She usually appears to children under eight years old, heart-broken teenage boys, and elderly men. While she tells the children goodnight and bids them to return home, she advises the teenagers to "find another" or to join her and become a part of her "shadow" (her ghostly followers). She also attempts to lure elderly men into her "shadow". Vrouwen in wit (plural of vrouw in wit ), or " Witte Wieven " as these women are called in local dialects, are mythical creatures of Low Saxon origin and so most known in
25599-601: Was killed while fighting against the British in the Battle of Beauport . The young couple allegedly used to meet near the top of the falls. Accordingly, the grieving woman is said to have chosen the site to end her life by throwing herself in the raging waters while wearing the wedding dress that she had recently ordered to be made. A smaller waterfall in the vicinity now bears the name Chute de la Dame Blanche (White Lady Waterfall) in reference to this legend. The best-known White Lady of
25760-454: Was particularly enthralled by the poem. Grimm translated it into German , and described it as "one of the most touching poems of all nations and all times". Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published the German translation, but did not share Grimm's opinion because he found the poem's spirit "superstitiously barbaric". Alan Dundes , a famous folklorist , noted that Grimm's opinion prevailed and that
25921-527: Was soon upcoming, but just before the ceremony, she committed suicide by jumping off a balcony. She was wearing her wedding gown when she died. This is why she is still known, to this day, as The White Lady. It is said that she haunts the Verdala Palace and many people who attend the August moon ball confirm that the apparition does appear in the palace. According to another Maltese legend, the White Lady of Mdina
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