The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-26
EMBODIED SPIRITS.
Those Who See "Ghosts" NaSueiy
Conscious They Are Not Real

Some one the other day, when the
conversation turned, as 1t sometimes
does on ghosts, described an eXpeFA
ence which had befallen a Irlehu' an
which seemed to revive a ratner olo-
fashioned kind of spirit. The laoy WIZ
had perceived the ghost had Wakeneo
in the early morning TO find snaoo"y
garmented figure hanging over her peu:
It had presently gone, and she nao
seen it's gray shadow fade INTO Ihe
light OF the window nearest the STAIR
case landing. The ghost returned on
other mornings. 1t did not seem TO
have frightened her very much, though
she was a stranger in a strange lano.
But the occurrence was reported TO On
eminent member of the society iof
Psychical Research. 1t was Iouhu Va
inouiry that some time before some
one had died in the house in a room
on the same landing. The explanation
If was suggested by the eminent
authority-followed the lines of some
modern theories OF anpartt1onS. 1t was
that the spirit of the person VINO hau
died had been of too low an oroer TO
be able to escape from it's earthly sur
ro11ndings and so still haunted the
place of it's death. 1t would not now
ever, continue to do so 1noennlteS'
but would presently go.
e. Il aid The lady who had seen it
ceased to be haunted by it, and no
body has seen it since. But we are
about to put forward an explanation
of it's appearance and disappearance
which is not in the least supernatural
hut which is quite material. For the
n,1rnose of doing so we shall now add
another detail of the lady's experience
which we had purposely omitted
though on first consideration it seems
to strengthen the ghostly character OF
that experience. When she saw tue
gray shadow bending over her bed she
was conscious of an unpleasant ana
inexnlica BILE odor. This odor-so read1-
" TO he interpreted by the credulouS
as that of the charnelhouse-is the key
to the whole ghostly experience. IL was
a hallucination of smell. AS sucn II
is familiar to neurologists, and has
been abundantly explained by DR..
Henry Head, F. r. s., one of the senior
physicians of the London hospital.
We will leave it momentarily. how
ever. to take from some OF the many
examples he has cited, apparltlons sim
liar, to those which the lady perceived
They are seen perhaps not often, but
certainly not rarely, by his patients
at the London hospital and (previous-
Iv) bv those at the Victoria Park hos
pital for diseases of the chest. But
the poor people who perceive these
ghosts are not very willing to talk
about them, for there is one distin-
gushing popularity about the ghosts
Those who see them are vaguely con-
scious that they are not the real thing.
In that respect the ghosts differ funda-
mentally from the illusions of the in
sane which to the insane are quite real
and logical. But DR.. Heads patients
are afraid that there is something
wrong about themselves which makes
them see ghosts and so they will not
readily talk about it to the nurse or
in the presence of students, lest they
should be thought to be ''odd"-lest,
above all, they should be suspected to
be insane. 1t cannot be too clearly
emphasized al this point that they are
not insane; they are merely the tenn
porary victims of Authorizations which
will cease with an altered state Of
bodily health.
When, however, the patients conf
denee has been won, he finds relief in
telling a sympathetic physician what