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Why Do Ghosts & Apparitions Commonly Resemble Monks?

GNC

GNC

King-Sized Canary
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I wonder why so many people see menacing monks as an apparition? Some see them when they get sleep paralysis, some see them as they are out walking in an isolated area, etc.

Why the monk specifically? Is it because their faces are hidden? Or do they represent something ancient and unknowable? Why a cowled figure in particular?
 
Maybe they've heard their album?

Black Monk Time by The Monks (Polydor International 1966, re-issue Infinite Zero Archive/American Recordings 1994 and 1997)

I'll get my coat. Again. :(
 
I think it's confabulation (apologies if I've picked the wrong word). You see something dark and shapeless and your brain makes the assumption that it's a monk because the cultural imprints we have match that particular shape....does that make sense???
 
Monking was probably the most popular profession in Medieval times.
Far from being a quiet life, though, the monasteries were hives of
industry and surprisingly mechanised. See Jean Gimpel's book The
Medieval Machine for a vivid account of an earlier Industrial Revolution.

Ghostly monks, however, seem to have little connection with history
and rather more with literature, specifically Gothic horrors. The most
celebrated novel with an evil monk at its centre was Matthew "Monk"
Lewis's "The Monk" of 1796. It was highly influential and inspired
countless imitators, especially during the expansion of literacy
in the mid-nineteenth century. The ingredients of the Gothic Horror
novel became very stereotyped and formed the backdrop of many
claimed factual ghost sightings. :)
 
Thanks for that. Presuming the cowl isn't a fashion statement by mysterious beings, do real monks historically have a threatening reputation? I would have thought they were peaceful fellows. Is it because they have a supposed greater understanding of what lies beyond that they're seen as more "in touch" with the supernatural?

Or did those land spirits start the trend of the cowl, I wonder?

You don't get as many nun apparitions in the same circumstances, do you? Maybe it's nothing to do with religion, of course.
 
Devil in disguise

Could be a disguise for a demon:

From Kit Marlowe's Doctor Faustus:

Faustus:

Sint mihi Dei Acherontis propitii! Valeat numen triplex Jehovae! Ignei,
aeriI, aquatani spiritus, salvete! Orientis princeps Beelzebub, inferni
ardentis monarcha & Demigorgon, propitiamus vos, ut appareat &
surgat Mephistophilis. Quid tu moraris? Per Jehovam, Gehennam, &
consecratam aquam quam nunc spargo, signumque crusis quod nunc
facio, & per vota nostra, ipse nunc surgat nobis dicatus Mephistophilis!
philis.

Enter a Devil.

I charge thee to return and change thy shape;
Thou art too ugly to attend on me,
Go and return an old Franciscan Friar;
That holy shape becomes a devil best.

Exit Devil
Click to expand...
 
Well I think it's a load of utter nunsense . . .

. . . all right, all right, I'll get me coat and go quietly . . .:p

Carole
 
So either people see monks because that's what they expect an apparition to look like, or the apparitions are real beings that are hundreds of years old, hence the cowl.
 
I was sent this pic by a friend. It was taken at dusk on 31st December 1999. There seems to be something in the top-right corner...
 
Ok! I don't wanna scare you guys on this wild, stormy evening...

Here's a close-up...:D

It was taken at Rempstone stone circle in Dorset.
 
David Raven said:
Ok! I don't wanna scare you guys on this wild, stormy evening...

Here's a close-up...:D

It was taken at Rempstone stone circle in Dorset.
Click to expand...

To me they look more like Ring Wraiths than monks...:eek!!!!:

You've not recently acquired an unusual antique ring have you?
 
Here's a few ideas ...

Monks garb (cloak, cowl etc) was a fairly basic get-up during the medieval period, especially when only colour differences showed the different orders.
Ghosts are mostly seen as monks since religious buildings are more likely to remain in the same use for years and then preserve the "atmosphere" afterwards.
Everyone thinks monks are strange-looking, probably wearing womens underwear underneath, and thus suitable images for wierd spooks.

This latter possibility is speculation only ...
;)
 
Timble said:
To me they look more like Ring Wraiths than monks...:eek!!!!:

You've not recently acquired an unusual antique ring have you?
Click to expand...

Dare I ask what a Ring Wraith is?!

I'll ask my mate if he's come across any old rings...:eek!!!!:
 
Ring wraiths...

From Lord of the Rings, the mortal men who were enslaved by the power of the ring and have become the black riders, hooded entities that serve Sauron.
 
David Raven said:
Ok! I don't wanna scare you guys on this wild, stormy evening...

Here's a close-up...:D

It was taken at Rempstone stone circle in Dorset.
Click to expand...
It looks like a ring of dancers. One of those rings you interrupt at your own risk. :eek:

I agree that cowled figures were once more common. Maybe people in the last few centuries just automatically think "I saw a monk" because that's the only type of person they know of who would still wear medeival clothing. Dominican nuns and other orders were more than happy to at last lose the "habit". The exact words I heard one of them say while explaining it? "It's ridiculous that we were wearing something no one else has worn since the middle ages."

So, if you see a phantom "monk" on a dark night, ask him what his trade is. Perhaps he'll show you that he carries a cross or rosary and you can report back to us. If he's a not a monk, and he's offended that you've interrupted his dark errand, we may never see you again. Good luck!
 
Why Old Hags

I seriously planning to start a thread like this one only I was going to name it "Why Old Hags?"
 
The classical rendition of Death is as a cowled skeleton holding a scythe and an hour glass, don't know when this first appeared in paintings, quite early on I should think, he's pretty supernatural!( though I prefer his granddaughter, Susan:D ) Maybe some connection passed down over the ages - a historical expectation?
 
It could also be convenient for the skeptics among us that when someone joins a religious order their personal history is, to a large extent erased and they become immerged as part of the enviroment they inhabit ( no pun intended) so they become a kind of vague symbolic representation of the past rather than a once- real person with relatives etc that can be traced or disproved to have once existed.
 
brian ellwood said:
The classical rendition of Death is as a cowled skeleton holding a scythe and an hour glass, don't know when this first appeared in paintings, quite early on I should think, he's pretty supernatural!( though I prefer his granddaughter, Susan:D ) Maybe some connection passed down over the ages - a historical expectation?
Click to expand...
A Basque friend of mine told me that in Spain/Portugal, the personification of Death is female - usually a young or middle aged woman of average appearance. Was she having me on? I can't help thinking that Susan Sto-Helit was in Spain before us!
 
Also, a hood and a cloak make for both complete cover and a degree of disguise, so when they were reasonably standard clothing they were probably also ideal for any number of dodgy individuals. With monks and friars off on pilgrimages and the like, it may be that if one needed a disguise which would enable one to travel around without any questions asked that might be ideal.
 
David Raven said:
Ok! I don't wanna scare you guys on this wild, stormy evening...

Here's a close-up...:D

It was taken at Rempstone stone circle in Dorset.
Click to expand...

I don't see 'em. Not fair. Is it the smudgy-looking grey-white whispy areas you're all talking about?
 
All the serious points above seem valid - here are a few more thoughts:

In the days before Burberry and pac-a-mac, everyone who had the choice wore a form of dark hardwearing woolen full-length hooded cloak in the rain in North West Europe, snow and wind - but nowadays we interpret that androgynous outfit as monkish.


The "ghosts glued to a spot till they get justice" theory is explored in Pliny, Boccacio, Chaucer etc, and the time when a lot of monks and nuns were killed for politico/religious reasons was the Dissolution of the monasteries (c1530's) in England, and slightly later in Scotland and Ireland and Wales . Apart from having a traumatic death (which always seems to set the stone tape to "record") there would have been a great confusion about where they would be expected to go after death. People up till then believed that the dead required Mass to be said for their souls or they would remain unable to progress in the spirit world beyond Purgatory to Heaven. So it was entirely believable to a 16th Century person who was not a fully committed protestant, that these were unquiet spirits who had expected, but not received masses and thus time off Purgatory. Either there were confused disembodied people, or there were people who believed in confused disembodied people. Either possibility could create a belief system which built up a credibility status over the centuries.



Also others have said that these ghosts have appeared where there are energy or ley lines (I can't quote on this - I seem to remember a bypass in Yorkshire, and somewhere near a haunted pub - can anyone help?).


It would be interesting to find out:

Whether the phenomenon was restricted to those countries where the monasteries were dissolved - with the dates of the ghosts being verified (so in France the ghosts would date from the French Revolution, and in Russia from 1917). Or whether similar phenomena appear in places like Canad or Australia.

Whether the phenomenon is mainly restricted to "energy lines" territory (Some theories hold that medieval religious buildings were built at key points on ley lines).

Whether the phenomena manifest themselves near ufo activity sites and may be connected.

Also - if you were a time traveller into the past who did not know quite where you would end up, then the costume of a recognised group within a historical sect that changed very little over 1500 years, might be a good bet. Or a bad one, if you happenned to hit the 16th Century.
 
Zygon said:
Maybe they've heard their album?
Click to expand...

Good band.

Didn't they have their heads shaved into whateverthenameofthemonkinshhaircutis - cowls?
 
The Virgin Queen said:
I'm sorry if someone's posted this already but this thread discuses monks in detale:

http://forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=248&highlight=monks
Click to expand...

Thanks Liz, the link I posted on the last page has stopped working (merged threads?!)

101 - I know, it's very objective, but the blue-grey lines reminded me of hooded figures :D

Marianina - Stocksbridge bypass?

http://www.mysterymag.com/yourexperiences/?page=article&subID=112&artID=349 is a tale of hooded figures that occured in 1999, in Yorkshire.

"It was grey and hooded. I went over to the point where it had been but there was no sign of anything. Whatever I saw floated across - no human could have done that. It was frightening."
Click to expand...

Dunno if it's relevant, but the site they mention (Rivock Edge) has a 'Robin Hood's Wood' nearby, and a 'Robin Hood's Stone' (which I've as yet been unable to locate)... more hoods!
 
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