~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Beethoven’s Letters.

“It is certainly in keeping with the spirit of Beethoven—a universal spirit, beyond time.” —Esteban Buch, Beethoven’s Ninth

~ Classic Sightings ~

Frontispiece from William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.

The implication seems to be this: spirit is a shadow in the material realm, and material is a shadow in the spirit realm.  To understand what's going on here, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Allin.

“Upon our darkened eyes / A light more pure than noontide rays shall shine.” —Catherine Grant Furley, “Incompleteness”

~ Classic Sightings ~

From William Douglas O’Connor’s The Ghost.

The left image depicts the ghost as it appears in the material realm, while the right image depicts the ghost as it appears in the immaterial realm. And so we learn that ghosts are even more nebulous in the netherworld.  To understand this phenomenon, see The Ghost in the [Scanning] Machine.

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Complete Works.

“The Other is a presence (a ‘face,’ as we will see), but it is a presence that is always infinitely distant: an absence.” —John Neary, Something and Nothingness

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from Life of John, Lord Campbell.

“We slash at that curtain with the sword of our sarcasm, of our bitterness. Yet you need have no fear. For our sword is but a ghostly sword.” —Anonymous, The North American Review

~ Classic Sightings ~

Portrait from A Memoir of Rev. Bennet Tyler.

“The smoky features swirled a moment, then coalesced back into the face.” —Piers Anthony, Cube Route

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from An Autobiography by Herbert Spencer.

“The unreal beard of a spectre selon les règles.” —Jemima Tautphoeus, At Odds

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from A Memoir of John Elder.

“A pluming bituminous beard of smoke.” —Esquire

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait of John Eglington Bailey from Thomas Fuller.

“Uncom’d and squalid hung the spectre’s beard.” —The Æneid of Virgil

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from Biography of Rev. G. H. Atkinson.

“Each hair in the beard ends in a point of light.” —Eliphas Levi

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from A Biography of William Cullen Bryant.

“The phantom’s beard was like lichen gray / Spread o’er an ancient stone.” —Traditional, “Conversion of Merlin”

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from The Complete Poetical Works of Robert Buchanan.

“The first part of the mysterious beard is that which commences from the right ear and descends to the corner of the mouth.” —Eliphas Levi

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from Memoir of William Henry Harvey.

“It was ghastly pale, a heavy black beard and moustache increasing the unnatural pallor by contrast.” —Henry Steel Olcott, People From the Other World

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from Autobiography of Samuel Smiles.

“His grey beard faded away in mist.” —Walter Starkie, Spanish Raggle-Taggle

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from A Memoir of the Life of John Tulloch.

“The ghost’s face is almost concealed by his white beard and mustache.” —H. Milnor Klapp, “A Race With a Ghost”

~ Mysterious Beards ~

Portrait from Memoir of John Veitch.

“The immense problem of the beard faded to insignificance.” —Blackwood’s Magazine