Andrew Lang

“ Not infrequently they are taken, at first sight, for living human beings. In darkness they are often luminous, otherwise they would be invisible! Unexplained noises often, but not always, occur in houses where these phenomena are perceived. Evidence is only good, approximately, when a series of persons, in the same house, behold the same appearance, without being aware that it has previously been seen by others. ”

“ The belief in hauntings was naturally persistent through the middle ages, and example and theory abound in the Loca infesta (Cologne, 1598) of Petrus Thyraeus, S.J.; Wierius (c. 1560) , in De praestigiis daemonum, is in the same tale. According to Thyraeus, hauntings appeal to the senses of sight, hearing and touch. The auditory phenomena are mainly thumping noises, sounds of footsteps, laughing and moaning. Rackets in general are caused by lares domestici (“brownies”) or the Poltergeist. In the tactile way ghosts push the living ”

“ The savage practice of tying up the corpse before burying it is clearly intended to prevent the dead from “walking”; and cremation, whether in savage lands or in classical times, may have originally had the same motive. ”

“ Mr Podmore proposed this hypothesis of causation, which was not accepted by Myers; he thought that the theory laid too heavy a burden on telepathy and suggestion. Neither cause, nor any other cause of similar results, ever affects members of the S.P.R. who may be sent to dwell in haunted houses. They have no weird experiences, except when they are visionaries who see phantoms wherever they go. ”