These are the scariest vintage ghost photos ever taken. From a entity captured at a spiritualist convention to a ghost photo that may have instigated a murder confession, we take a look at 10 vintage ghost photos that are sure to give you the creeps.
10. Robert A. Ferguson Vintage Ghost Photo
PinterestThis eerie photo was taken at a Californian spiritualist convention in 1968. Author Robert A. Ferguson was giving a talk on his latest book Psychic Telemetry: New Key to Health, Wealth, and Perfect Living, when someone in the crowd snapped this picture.
In the photo, just left of Ferguson there’s a translucent image of a man in a suit. When Ferguson first saw the image he immediately identified the mysterious figure as his late brother, Walter, who died in World War 2.
Many skeptics have tried debunking this now notorious photograph. However, the most alarming detail about this image is that it was taken on Polaroid, ruling out the possibility of double exposure or extra elements added in the darkroom.
9. William Mumler’s Ghostly Self-Portrait
This unsettling self-portrait of William H. Mumler allegedly contains the spirit of his dead cousin floating ominously in the background.
In New York in the 1860’s William Mumler began working as a medium after he produced a series of astonishing photographs that purportedly contained spirits of the deceased. Word soon spread around the country as people began to pay large sums of money for Mumler to contact their dead relatives and produce ‘proof’ in the form of photographs.
His most notable work is a portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln and her late husband Abraham Lincoln:
Mumler’s career however became unstuck when several people noticed that a lot of the ‘spirits’ that were showing up in his pictures were actually still alive. This led to Mumler being put on trial for fraud, and although he was eventually acquitted, his reputation was left in tatters.
At the time there were several credible witnesses, such as journalist Moses A. Dow, who supported Mumler and his spirit photography. They maintained that the photos were genuine evidence of the existence of ghosts and an afterlife.
What do you think? Could Mumler actually contact the dead and reveal their essence in the form of a photograph or is it all just a scheme, cooked up to make a few extra dollars?
8. Corroboree Rock
Many think that this photo contains the spirit of a young girl who died in the Australian outback.
In 1959, a priest from Adelaide, R.S. Blance, took this photo while exploring Corroboree Rock in Australia’s Northern Territory. He claims that he was enjoying the scenery, taking photos and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. That was until he got the photos developed and couldn’t quite believe what he saw.
There in one of the pictures is a young girl in a pale blue and white dress. She has a translucent quality and looks out of place in the rugged landscape.
Corroboree Rock holds spiritual significance for the indigenous communities that live in the area. The Arrernte tribe believe the area is dangerous for women, children and uninitiated men. It is forbidden to climb the rock itself.
Has Blance accidentally captured a spirit that is somehow attached to Corroboree Rock? Is this young girl now forced to eternally wander the vast, empty landscape of the Northern Territory?
7. Ghost Photo Confession
PsychicsThis is an eerie vintage ghost photo from Brazil. It’s not known when the photo was taken but it was developed using plate glass photography, and judging by the clothing, it probably dates this photograph to the very early 1900’s.
The image shows two people sitting for a portrait photograph, however there’s a strange woman floating horizontally across the centre of the picture. The story goes that the man sitting in this photo confessed to a murder after the image was produced. It’s alleged that the mysterious floating woman fell victim to the man on the left and was killed just a few weeks earlier.
The photographer, who was not a medium or spiritualist, claimed he could see the spirit of the woman through the lens of his camera. However when he looked at his subjects normally, there was no one else there.
Some historians think that the photographer knew about the crime and deliberately superimposed an image of the victim to drive the killer to a confession. Others think that the woman’s spirit did actually appear in the photo, perhaps seeking justice for her untimely death.
6. John Beattie Ghost Photo
In 1872 in the bustling town of Bristol in the UK, spiritualist John Beattie was experimenting with seances and photography. He and his colleague Eugene Rochas, would attempt to summon spirits into the room via ouija boards and other mediums. A series of photos were taken in an attempt to capture anything unusual.
This photo is an example of one of the seances. You can see in the middle of the men, floating ominously above them, is a strange white shape. It’s separated into two pieces, a small inverted L shape above a much larger body of pale mist.
This is obviously well before digital image manipulation could play a role, so it begs the question, what is the strange object? It’s possible, as with other spiritualists at the time, that the image is an outright hoax, a double exposure used for ill-gotten gains. Some historians however, believe the photograph is genuine evidence that these men connected with spirits and energies from other realms.
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