GHOSTS

A brief summery of a large chunk of paranormal studies and folklore.

Doppelganger -- Ghost -- Green Soul -- Larvae -- Lemure -- Red Soul -- Shadow -- Soul -- Spectre -- Spirit -- Wraith -- Yellow Soul

GHOST

Ghosts are entities which can be detected by any of the five senses, although not necessarily all at the same time. There are a number of different theories about how ghosts are created. In popular belief they are the departed souls of dead people, but this explanation doesn't cover the reports of ghosts of living people, which often appear when the flesh and blood double is in danger or even meditating on the area where the ghost appears, or ghosts of supposedly soulless things such as animals, vehicles and something resembling a glass tube filled with blue and white liquid which was sighted at the Tower of London (an apparition which could also easily fit into UFO lore). The fact that humanoid apparitions are almost always clothed also calls the "lost soul" idea into question, although it could be argued that an apparition resembles its living counterpart's self image at the time of death - after all, is the idea that the soul resembles a human body any less strange?

Another popular theory amongst researches is that ghosts are not sentient, but images that are somehow "recorded" and "replayed" (such an image is known as a "residual haunting"). But there are a number of cases where ghosts are able to communicate with the living or move objects (spirits that do the latter are known as poltergeists, German for "noisy spirit", and have a seperate set of theories regarding their existance) - while the nature of residual hauntings is far from thoroughly explained, these cases seem to conflict with the notion.
For the legend of Jan Tregeagle, one of the stranger episodes in ghost lore, see the hell hound entry.

IMAGE: A photograph that purports to show the ghost known as "the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall"

DOPPELGANGER

The doppelganger, German for "double goer", is similar to the "crisis apparition" or wraith in that it resembles a living person. The biggest difference, however, is that the doppelganger looks like the person who sees it. Doppelgangers are often considered to be omens of death, which can be seen as a parallel to the fact that crisis apparitions signify that their human counterpart is in danger. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley allegedly saw his doppelganger while in Italy, and it not only served as a death omen but also predicted the means of Shelley's death - it pointed towards the Mediterranean sea, where Shelley later died in a boating accident. On the other hand, another poet, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, saw a doppelganger that didn't appear to be connected to his death. Interestingly, it was wearing clothes that von Goethe didn't have until later. While riding down the same road, he remembered that he had seen his doppelganger there - and realised that he was dressed in the exact same way.
The image above shows FF2's doppelganger in the form of Frionel. In the game, it looks the same as whoever is at the top of your party.

LARVAE, LEMURE

Two names for the malevolent ghosts (or, more accurately souls, as it appears that they were believed to be, unquestionably, spirits of dead people) from Roman belief.

SHADOW

Ghosts are often reported as resembling shadows. Art Bell, sometime host of a radio programme on the paranormal, coined (or at least popularised) the phrase "shadow person" to describe this type of ghost (if, indeed, they are ghosts). I myself have seen a shadow person, but like the writers of many other shadow person reports I've read on the Internet, I was in bed at night, which makes it somewhat dubious. I don't recall going to sleep beforehand (it would have been even more suspicious if I had woken up in the night and seen it), but I still personally believe that the majority of these nocternal shadow people are simply hallucinations. There is another FF enemy called a shadow (actually "kage", Japanese for "shadow"), its entry can be found on the ninja page.

IMAGE: A sketch of the shadow person that I saw

SPECTRE, WRAITH

Both words are often used synonymously with "ghost", although "wraith" has a slightly diferrent definition. According to The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1965 edition), a wraith is a "Person's double or apparition seen shortly before or after his death; ghost".

IMAGE: A photograph that purports to show the ghost known as "the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall"

SPIRIT

The term "spirit" covers any number of gods, demons, angels and elementals. However, as FF4's spirit is a recoloured version of the soul, it would appear that it is intended to be a human spirit - see ghost.

IMAGE: A photograph that purports to show the ghost known as "the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall"

SOUL, GREEN SOUL, RED SOUL, YELLOW SOUL

A reference to the theory that ghosts are departed souls. It's interesting to note that, with their horns and beards, these souls look somewhat like demons. Researchers generally consider demons and departed souls to be seperate types of spirit.

IMAGE: A photograph that purports to show the ghost known as "the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall"

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