Ghost

A ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person, taken to be capable of appearing in visible form or otherwise manifesting itself to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely: The mode of manifestation can range from an invisible presence to translucent or wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. The deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.

John Dee and Edward Kelley invoking the spirit of a deceased person (engraving from the Astrology by Ebenezer Sibly, 1806).

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is a cultural universal, dating back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices — funeral rights, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic — are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences which haunt particular locations, objects, or people with which they were associated in life, though stories of phantom armies, ghost trains and phantom ships, and even ghost animals have also been recounted. Ghosts are popular motifs in film, theatre, literature, and myth and legend, as are other paranormal entities. They often carry connotations of violence, suffering, disquiet, or penance.

Beginning with 19th-century spiritism, various attempts have been made to draw conclusions about the existence of ghosts through scientific methods, but such efforts are generally held to be pseudoscientific.