tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post7890145914774952264..comments2024-03-21T22:36:54.451-04:00Comments on HISTORIES OF THINGS TO COME: Hallowe'en Countdown 16: The Most Compelling Ghost Videos and PhotographsLC Douglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-39565927393402768192011-10-23T00:06:18.847-04:002011-10-23T00:06:18.847-04:00Thanks for your comment, Thomas. It's a very a...Thanks for your comment, Thomas. It's a very artful photoshop job isn't it? The little girl in the burning bldg is a famous 'unsolved' ghost photo that you will find all over the Web. It was sent in by a local, who obviously manipulated a historic local postcard. It was later debunked locally (I don't know if the fellow who did the photoshopping got into any trouble). But for some reason the debunking of the photo has not made it onto the Web at large.<br /><br />Perhaps the town wanted to keep the ghost alive?<br /><br />As for wanting ghosts to be real, I take your point, although I'm pretty fond of empirical reality. I love imagination and art, am willing to probe the gray areas. However, I'm not interested in actively confronting real spectres. The main thing I've found in running these posts is that ghosts and even demons are mainly symbols and metaphors for actual horrors that are much worse than anything the undead realm could produce: murder, violence, grief, disease, broken families, economic bankruptcy, despair, suicide, etc etc. Sometimes the paranormal is just a metaphor for that which we do not yet know, and that lack of knowledge can be terrifying. 99 per cent of the time, if not 100 per cent of the time, the supernatural channels either tragedy or ignorance. Peeling back the 'genuine' picture behind the legends (as with the Cambodian post I did earlier in this countdown) shows the reality behind the ghost. The ghosts are actually better ciphers, and maybe that's why Hallowe'en can be fun for people - a partial flirtation with the unspeakable, dressing up, eating some candy, watching a scary movie - but never facing the truth behind these symbols we toss around at this time of year.LC Douglasshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04250961297714038453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2905155363976375938.post-64440330852187523352011-10-22T23:27:09.117-04:002011-10-22T23:27:09.117-04:00I'm not a skeptic, per se, but I can't let...I'm not a skeptic, per se, but I can't let rational thought be chased away by 'wishful thinking'. That image of the little girl in the fire and in the daylight doorway don't just look identical, they ARE identical. Every detail of shadow and light, pose and posture are identical—indicating to me that the source material for the image manipulation has been found.<br /><br />And I've got lots of pictures of 'globes of light', because when I use the camera flash on outside nighttime shots, particles of moisture in the air catch the light, but are out of focus as the lens focuses on the main subject.<br /><br />I want there to be ghosts or such in the world, proving that there is more to reality than we give credit for, but I want them to be real ghosts, not manipulations or hysteria :>)Thomas Haller Buchananhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09278003392092477845noreply@blogger.com