Faceless Ghosts

[David Plankton]

i do have a rejoinder for your Roman centurions argument - there were a whole bunch of them marching along were there not. And so (by my very thin theorising) - these ghosts were created not by the centurions themselves, but by someone else (unseen) that saw them marching and was very taken by this impressive sight. (thus they saw the faces of the centurions, and so the centurions have faces).

I think we're more or less batting for the same side, but the theory put forward by Bloop was that these ghosts were faceless because there was no one living to remember them. There won't be anyone alive who personally remembers these soldiers from life, yet they had recognisable faces. The video is on youtube, it was posted on these boards a few months ago and the witness described the soldiers as having stubble (among other things).

This is a lot of theorising for something which might not even exist.

I said, (inspired by Thomas Hardy - I'll track the poem down later) and expanding on Bloop's theory, that perhaps faceless ghosts not only have no one to remember them, but that they might also have no living descendants.
How well are Nuns and Monks represented in this aspect of Forteana? There is one demographic where you wouldn't expect there to be too many descendants.

 

[Mythopoeika]

How well are Nuns and Monks represented in this aspect of Forteana? There is one demographic where you wouldn't expect there to be too many descendants.

Ghost monks are pretty much all faceless.

 

[GNC]

Ghost monks always have their cowls up, so that could be why you don't see their faces. Or maybe they're hiding the fact they don't have a face in the first place?

 

[David Plankton]

And what about animal ghosts? They don't know what they look like either. But I do like the theory very much.

I posted this in reply to Eponastill's comment on mirrors earlier and only today thought of all the old accounts of headless horses and even headless phantom Black Dogs.
But they're only old legends aren't they? Nobody sees phantom coaches with headless horses anymore. Do they?

Ghost monks always have their cowls up, so that could be why you don't see their faces. Or maybe they're hiding the fact they don't have a face in the first place?

I think for the purposes of this thread they can be considered faceless. Thinking on it, are there any accounts of faceless ghost nuns or am I just thinking about that episode of Armchair Thriller?
The poem I was thinking about is called Heredity. And it's not as good as I remember, although several of Hardy's poems touch on the supernatural and life after death.
https://thereaderonline.co.uk/2012/11/19/featured-poem-heredity-by-thomas-hardy/

 

[OneWingedBird]

Funnily enough, I came across this while reading England's Hidden Reverse as it makes reference to the picture, Vermeer's The Little Street

Doesn't look too bad as long as you don't get too close.

Close up of the woman in the doorway to the right.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Lots of artists do that - simplify details.

 

[amarok2005]

I'm writing a book of many short fortean essays (a la Frank Edwards, but with complete and exhaustive references), and one tale concerns the faceless being Lafcadio Hearn called "Mujina," but what is more properly called Noppera-bo ("No Face," logically).

Folklorist and university professor Glen Grant came across stories of this Japanese entity in Hawaii:

http://www.webcitation.org/query?ur...w/6166/faceless.html&date=2009-10-25+12:34:17

 

[titch]

This month's ghost watch in the magazine is about faceless ghosts! Good stuff it is too.

 

[mikfez]

This month's ghost watch in the magazine is about faceless ghosts! Good stuff it is too.

While reading the article I wondered if anyone has investigated whether there is a connection between faceless ghosts and faceless people in dreams?

 

[Krepostnoi]

faceless people in dreams?

Is this a thing? I have a dimly-remembered fact-shaped sentence that suggests the brain populates our dreams with the faces of people we encounter, or even just pass in the the street, in our day-to-day lives. This is where, not for the first time, I curse the fact that so often I cannot remember my dreams, because I wonder whether the NPCs, so to speak, in my dreams, still tend to have European features, or whether the frequency of Asiatic-featured people has increased. Could be an interesting gateway into exploring unconscious biases and the like.

 

[Cochise]

Is this a thing? I have a dimly-remembered fact-shaped sentence that suggests the brain populates our dreams with the faces of people we encounter, or even just pass in the the street, in our day-to-day lives. This is where, not for the first time, I curse the fact that so often I cannot remember my dreams, because I wonder whether the NPCs, so to speak, in my dreams, still tend to have European features, or whether the frequency of Asiatic-featured people has increased. Could be an interesting gateway into exploring unconscious biases and the like.

On the rare occasions I have had faceless people in dreams I find them highly disturbing.

 

[MorningAngel]

In the late 1970s, my husband was doing a re-enactment at Sudeley Castle. So the place was teeming in people in period costume. (Although in those days standards of authenticity so low you could spot a re-enactor at 100 paces!)

What dents the credibility of this is he was slightly 'tired and emotional' when he saw It. He was coming through some woods near the house, returning from having a wee, in the night and saw this woman standing not far ahead of him, in a cloak a la Scottish Widows - cloak with hood and hood up. Nothing spooky about that doing re-enactment. But something about her was weird... She seemed to be staring right at him. And as he got closer he realised she had no face. Just a blank sort of blackness where the face should have been (although her head/body was positioned in such a way he could tell she was 'looking' straight at him). Needless to say he legged it and probably the only reason he didn't pee himself was he'd just been...

He can't recall if she vanished or what - he just ran for dear life.

Years later, I was driving us back from a day out and it was getting dark, I was tired, and made a wrong turn. I realised from the sign posts we were heading right towards Sudeley Castle. When he realised where he (nearly) was he went white as a sheet and begged me to turn round. Didn't care where we went so long as he didn't even have to see the place, ever again. That reaction alone convinced me he'd been telling the truth. He says the clothing was hard to see in the dark, inany detail but he got the impression it was more 18thC than 17thC (the period he was re-enacting).

Other re-enactor friends have also told similar stories - something about being in a place in costume does seem to spark summat off, sometimes.

Must confuse the ghosties.

 

[Ghost In The Machine]

Must confuse the ghosties.

Maybe they like it!