There is an anecdote about two men meeting in a cemetery. One is running at breakneck speed, hair is on end, the veins are shaking, and the other asks him: "Why are you running?" He replies that he is afraid of the dead. “When I was alive, I was also afraid,” the stranger admits.
The joke is a joke, but there are a lot of fascinating and frightening stories about the appearance of ghosts in cemeteries …
Phantom convicts
For example, in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh there is an old Greyfriars Church, and next to it is an equally old cemetery, where many historical films were filmed, a place quite popular with tourists. It is they who talk about the fact that during excursions around the cemetery they sometimes hear someone's displeased voices and see ghostly figures. And some even claim that some unknown force pushes them and strikes them …
The fact is that in the 17th century a prison was located on the territory of the cemetery. In 1679, under King Charles II, political criminals were placed here, many of whom were sentenced to death and then buried in the same cemetery. Lord Mackenzie, who sentenced prisoners to death, was also buried here.
At Westerfield Cemetery in the US state of Connecticut, the ghosts of people buried there were seen at night, wandering among the graves. Sometimes they were observed during the day. One photographer specifically hunted for ghosts in the cemetery, and in the end he managed to photograph a phantom near the grave where a man who died from a snakebite was buried. True, later they suspected a fake in the pictures …
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Dry River
Ghosts are also found near the old cemetery in the village of Sukhaya River near Kazan. Here is the story of Nina Savelyeva: “The second shift at the plant ends late. I begged one of my colleagues to take him to the Dry River, as her husband and daughter were waiting at the dacha. I got out of the car at the bus stop, and suddenly I saw: a woman in a long white robe was standing five meters ahead. I thought that I would pass quickly by, and quickened my pace, but the distance between me and the woman did not close.
Everything was somehow unreal. The ghost pursued me until the turn, and behind him I literally ran into my husband, who had come out to meet me. For a long time I could not utter a word, I just pointed my hand towards the "white woman", but the vision had already disappeared."
The "white woman" was also seen by other summer residents living near the cemetery. They said that usually the ghost first knocks on the window, then slowly floats past the house to the gate and gradually disappears. And one of the summer residents was somehow hit with a stick by an unfamiliar old man in rags, who then seemed to dissolve into thin air.
Another old Kazan cemetery is located within the city limits, near Saban Street. Inhabitants of nearby houses often see some unusual animals and glowing balls there, not to mention ghosts … Near the village of Neyalovo, which is located in the Pestrechinsky district of Tatarstan, there is an abandoned cemetery.
One of the local residents, Aleksey, a chauffeur by profession, claims that he somehow met his late sister there. Another time, when Aleksey was transporting bags of wheat, his car suddenly skidded near the cemetery, and had to spend the night there. Suddenly - either in a dream, or in reality - the man heard his sister's voice: "Lesh, give me some wheat!" "Take it!" - answered the driver. And it must be the same - in the morning I really missed one sack. And why does a ghost need wheat?
Clouds over the graves
There are three graveyards in Tyumen where ghosts are observed. In photographs taken at the Tekutyevsky cemetery near the graves, some strange white ovals sometimes appear. Once in the picture of a Gothic girl, there was a black translucent cloud hanging over her head. Local goth guys are convinced that these are the souls of the dead. The same Goths say that at the Chervishevskoye cemetery at dusk one can observe a white translucent haze, shaped like human figures. As soon as you approach the ghosts, they disappear. Some, however, were photographed.
The Academy of Culture and Arts is located at 4 Republic Street. At night you can hear someone's footsteps and even the sound of music. Nearby are the so-called Lovers' Bridge and the old cemetery of the 17th-18th centuries. Academy students claim to have seen ghosts near the bridge several times. Most likely, it's all about the cemetery. During road works, burials were dug more than once, and part of the churchyard was completely destroyed when a residential quarter was being built. The deceased are unhappy, they are toiling now …
Mysterious balls
On May 9, 1978, psychic Vyacheslav P., while on a business trip in Volgograd, visited the Mamayev Kurgan, where the mass graves of soldiers killed in the Battle of Stalingrad are located. Many people gathered on the mound that day. Funeral music sounded, wreaths were laid … Suddenly Vyacheslav saw orange balls flying out of one grave. Climbing up, they hovered over the crowd, lined up in a garland. Looking around, P. found that exactly the same balls were hovering over other graves. Except for the psychic, apparently no one noticed them.
And here is what happened to Konstantin Pokrovsky, a photographer from Nizhny Novgorod. It all started many years ago. Once, Konstantin was invited to shoot at someone's wedding. There were no digital cameras at that time, they were filming with ordinary film cameras. When Kostya began to develop the films, he found that they were damaged - some round white spots were floating all over the space of the frames. Just in case, he nevertheless printed photographs and began to examine the "marriage" in a magnifying glass.
It turned out that the mysterious spots when magnified look like balls floating in the air. I had to look for customers in order to apologize to them for the damaged pictures and return the money. Kostya learned that the newlyweds spend their honeymoon in a remote village in the north of the region. He went there in his "Niva". At the gate he was met by a young woman in a black mourning dress with tear-stained eyes. The photographer hardly recognized her as a former bride. The woman recognized Constantine.
- We don't need any photos now! - she said.
It turned out that her young husband was killed by some unknown persons. Kostya remembered that the groom's father was a crime boss. Perhaps the son was the victim of some kind of mafia showdown. Most likely, the young people drove off into the wilderness not by accident - they were hiding from someone.
The next time the balloon visited Kostya in July 2007 at the dacha. The photographer and his wife were drinking tea on the veranda. The ball appeared
first on the roof, then he lowered himself onto the table and began to rotate smoothly, while emitting a quiet rustle. Kostya suddenly lost his sense of time. He didn't know how long had passed: an hour or just a few minutes. I asked my spouse if she saw anything on the table. The woman replied that there was nothing but cups. For her, the "visitor" remained invisible. Finally, the balloon flew up. He made such movements, as if calling for him.
Kostya, as if under hypnosis, left the house, started the car and drove after the "alien". It took three hours to get the ball. Finally, a cemetery appeared near the village of Pochinki. Konstantin got out of the car and went to get the ball. He stopped near one of the graves. She looked abandoned, the wooden cross was askew. With difficulty, Kostya was able to read the half-erased inscription on it: “Pokrovsky G. Ya. 1874-1918 ". When he woke up, the ball disappeared somewhere.
For several months the photographer rummaged through the archives and got to the bottom of the truth: his great-great-grandfather was buried in the grave! Grigory Yakovlevich Pokrovsky, a village priest, was shot by the Chekists during the revolution. The surviving members of the family left for the city, tried to cover their tracks, fearing accusations of links with the "counter-revolutionary element." Konstantin corrected the grave, erected a good monument, made an inscription that his great-great-grandfather was tortured in the dungeons of the Cheka. It turns out that the ball brought him to the grave of his ancestor!
Why do ghosts still appear near graves? Parapsychologists believe that the soul - the energy-informational essence of a person - due to some circumstances, for example a violent death or improper burial conditions, can be tied to the place where he is buried. And she can live there for a very long time …
Dina KUNTSEVA