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Outline Ghosts

taras

taras

Least Haunted
Joined
Oct 27, 2002
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Location
Edinburgh
At Christmas, an old friend of the family came round to visit for half an hour, and she told us that she believes her house is haunted -- she, and her family, have frequently seen an "outline" ghost/spirit in the house, and are always careful to go around it. It's apparently getting really creepy.

Anyway, around Christmas time, she was rushing down the stairs, and just as she was reaching the bottom noticed this spirit standing there. Unfortunately, she didn't have a chance to stop as she was already heading downstairs at such a rate, and walked through the outline. Immediately, she felt cold, sad and badly shaken, and couldn't stand up because she was so dizzy. The whole family seems to accept this as "just one of those things", which I thought was pretty odd. The entity doesn't seem particularly friendly or malevolant, just "present". Any thoughts?
 
does this spirit only usual appear in the one place? they could try leaving a video camarea to see if it picks up anything weird, or they could try giving the ole EVP thing a go.
 
No idea, she only mentioned it a few minutes before she had to go, and passed the whole thing off as something not out of the ordinary. I didn't really get a chance to question her (especially since I was dying for her to leave so I could go and watch Back to the Future Trilogy I'd just received and have some turkey sandwiches...) :D
 
Outline

The outline is likely being projected and the experience of the ghost as cold, sad, and disorienting indicates that she moved into its influence momentarily. Empathic family, no doubt. They should probably try projecting soothing thoughts and images at this outline when they sense it around. May help both the ghost and them.
 
Trace

Hmm, with no hard evidence or theory to cite, the presence of the mere outline of a ghost screams the idea of a psychic trace at me. Could a particularly strong emotional presence have etched itself into the place it was most often found? The outline is, of course, the border between the body that housed the emotion and the air around - perhaps the contrast is strongest here on the threshold.

Just thinking out loud...
 
Place

The notion that strong emotions somehow "etch" themselves into a "place" leaves one to ask exactly what place means. There are problems with this idea. Example: The outline ghost is seen hovering in the air, not on the surface of some solid object, not on a wall, etc. This leads to the question of onto what might the impression been etched?

Further, place is relative. Remember that Earth is not only spinning, (wildly out of control, if one believes the political rhetoric), but moving through space in an orbit around Sol AND as the Milky Way Galaxy orbits the center of the galactic cluster, which itself is flying away from all other clusters at an alarming rate as space/time expands, etc. Therefore, place is elastic and possibly never occupies the same space twice.

This was glossed over in H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. He acknowledges that the ground level and surface terrain will change in time, but completely neglects the problem of getting the right space-time coordinates. What would happen to the Time Traveler as Wells has postulated things is that the poor fellow would jump through time and end up in empty space where the planet USED to be, or where it HASN'T YET ARRIVED.

Tricky navigating is required for time travel.

This is why I'm a bit leery of the emotional imprint theory.
 
Points acknowledged. Perhaps the start of a possible explanation could be found in the supposition that human minds and spirits are somehow psychically 'bound' to the Earth in some way. Indeed, if one begins to take a more holistic view of our planet it does not strike me as implausible that we are part of the Earth and not just things that live on it. Certainly many astronauts who have left the planet explain their experience in spiritual terms.

Again, just thinking aloud.

As to Wells' Time Machine, you may be right but a cogent theory of time travel was not really the primary aim of the story was it? The scientific trappings, like Kelvin's (entropic) heat death of the universe and Darwinian/Chambers' evolution were just a framework for what is, essentially, a moral and political yarn.

Likewise The Island of Dr Moreau doesn't manage an accurate picture of what we would now see as genetic engineering but the setting allows for an exploration of contemporary morality.
 
Polemics

Agreed, Wells was writing socialist propaganda and satire, not science fiction per se, and he certainly wasn't emphasizing or even paying much attention to the science. I hadn't meant to impugn his science, merely used that as an example most would recognize in order to discuss the intricacies of the celestial motions involved.

Navigating to the moon or Mars involves similar problems, without invoking huge gaps of time on top of it all.

I agree that we are indeed part of Earth, but more: All is One, No Separation. We are the cosmos, it is us, and there is no meaningful distinction to be made. That separation some of us feel is illusion. We can NEVER be apart from nature and all we do is natural.

Further, we are as connected to the farthest star as we are to our wife or to the dirt we ate as a kid, etc. It's all ONE BIG THING. We're just parts of a much larger whole.

Once you get that, ghosts make perfect sense, even while remaining inexplicable in ordinary terms. I firmly believe all Fortean Phenomena fall under this notion of All is One, No Separation.
 
When it comes right down to it -- we are part of this planet.
When a "soul" or "energy" from a person leaves the body,
perhaps it can't/won't leave the planet, because it has always
been part of the Earth.
When the spiritual "recording" occurs (I tend to favor rocks
and/or water as the recording mechanism), it would make sense
that it stays in its original surroundings since it is bound to
the building/road/field where it happened.

Just a thought...

TVgeek
 
Can we get more from The Outline Lady ?

Dear Taras et al,
Forgive me for interupting your philosophical musings on the Stone Tape Theory - I will undoubtedly put my oar in at some point, but if we can go back to the case in point ~

Taras used the term 'frequently' in regard to the alleged phenomena . How frequent ? Have all family members seen the 'outline ghost' ? If it's possible to relay these questions to the lady, then how about asking her to keep a diary of her and her family's experiences ? Where is this apparition seen ? When ? By whom ? Weather conditions ? Any additional circumstances ?
Are there any other unusual happenings in the home ? How long have they lived in the property ? How long has this been going on ?

I ask all these questions because I belong to the Scottish S.P.R - and if your family friend wants to talk about her experiences, then she can contact us through our web site ( it's still under construction but has contact details http://www.sspr.co.uk ).

It seems that the family are all level-headed and aren't getting too excited about it - which is the right way to deal with such things !

Also - Edinburgh ? A spooky place. Lots of ghosts and ghost stories - we get quite a few cases there.


And now ~
As far as being part of a cosmic whole, and all things being natural ~ it isn't necessarily a morally beneficial belief. Buddhists may be pacifist because " we are all each other " and hurting others is just hurting ourselves...But equally, I can imagine a toothless redneck serial killer saying, " I'm perfectly natural " & " This hurts me as much as it hurts you ! " as he saws his way through your spleen.
Ouch !
Oh, and as far as the Woops! -Time Machine argument goes, I remember the 2000 AD comic strip, 'Strontium Dog' ; Johnny Alpha used to have a time-grenade which blasted people 15 seconds into the future - which of course would just drop them into outer space ! Ta-ra !

Not helpfull at all that. But never mind.
Regards,

Innes
 
Well, I don't really see these people more than once a year, but I'll check again next Christmas :) - they live in Birmingham.
 
Woops ! I assumed they lived in Edinburgh !

Dear Taras,
Birmingham eh ? I'm sure the SPR would turn up if your " Auntie " was in dire straits.. It's a bit far away from Scotland..
I suppose the ball is in their court - it's not always a good idea to stick your nose into somebody else's paranormal problems - but if you do speak to them, you could ask if everything was alright ?? If they bring the subject up, then you can ask more questions..
Regards,

Innes
 
Re: Can we get more from The Outline Lady ?

Innes Smith said:
And now ~
As far as being part of a cosmic whole, and all things being natural ~ it isn't necessarily a morally beneficial belief. Buddhists may be pacifist because " we are all each other " and hurting others is just hurting ourselves...But equally, I can imagine a toothless redneck serial killer saying, " I'm perfectly natural " & " This hurts me as much as it hurts you ! " as he saws his way through your spleen.
Click to expand...

I think we were more concerned with ontology than ethics but i take your point nonetheless. Invoking Buddhism is interesting as they take, to put it mildly, a far more long-term view of such actions than you portray. By their belief, yes, the redneck may hurt you with seeming inpunity in the short term, but, over the virtually infinite and certainly incalculabe length of the universe (see kalpa or maha-kalpa), through your many incarnations, Karma will see to it that the action will come back around to him.

The Buddah famously attempted to provide his disciples with some idea of the vast amounts of time required for the unfolding of their life-patterns by stating that the amount of mothers' milk drunk and tears shed during their previous existences was greater than the waters of the four mighty oceans. To them the here and now is a but a drop in the ocean.
 
Instant Karma

This vastness of the turnings of the Karmic Wheel is beyond the impatience threshold of most modern folks, who prefer the notion of Instant Karma, whereby one's actions are thought to cause some immediate response from the universe, or at least one Real Soon Now. When something goes awry, people will say, "Karma." They use this to mean that the Cosmos is redressing some of their wrongs, by balancing the good things with a dose of bad.

The whole mind-set is different. Western notions are duality, while Eastern notions are holistic and cyclical. Even the apparent polarity of the Yin-Yang mandala is misunderstood, because it actually represents the inter-penetration of light into dark, male into female, and so on. It represents the inseparable nature of apparent opposites.
 
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