The first documentary records of sightings of ghosts date back to the times of Ancient Egypt and Assyria. The cuneiform tablets of the Assyrians tell of the spirits of Utukku, who terrified the Assyrian cities. As the ancients believed, these ghosts appeared when a person died a painful death. Therefore, many Utukku were deprived of limbs, had traces of wounds or torture and uttered piercing cries of pain. The Egyptians called similar ghosts Ku. In order to get rid of them, it was necessary to offer fresh meat to an unsettled spirit.
In Europe legends about ghosts have been known for more than two millennia. Like the ancient Assyrians, the inhabitants of European countries believed that a person who died a painful death becomes a ghost. For example, the Irish feared Tasha - the spirits of people tortured in torture chambers, as well as executed on gallows or blockhouses. Already in our time, researchers of paranormal phenomena have suggested that ghosts are a specific energetic substance secreted by human nerve cells at a time of intense suffering. shock or emotional trauma. This theory partly explains why there is a fairly high probability of encountering a ghost in some places.
Traditionally, the appearance of ghosts has been associated with cemeteries. According to the researchers, the reason leading to the appearance of a ghost in a cemetery sometimes becomes the burial of people alive, when a person who is suffocating and aware of his position in the last minutes of his life experiences a terrible psychological shock.
Confirmation of an unusual theory can be found in the old Franciscan cemetery, located in Edinburgh (UK), where today, when it gets dark, ghosts appear among the stone tombstones. Their pale silhouettes float over the graves, causing confusion and fear in the souls of visitors. According to the caretaker, some people complain of being touched by invisible hands and tremors, which caused several fainting and heart attacks among visitors to the cemetery.
According to legend, the first ghosts appeared at the Franciscan cemetery in 1858, after a wealthy merchant John Gray was buried alive there due to a medical error. The terrible truth about the death of Gray was found out after a relative of the deceased who arrived late, said that in childhood he fell into a lethargic sleep several times, very much like death. The grave, just in case, was dug up, and in the coffin they found a crumpled corpse with his hands ripped off in blood. Apparently, the unfortunate man tried to scratch the oak boards of the coffin.
A huge Great Dane named Bobby for fourteen years came to the grave of his master John Gray and spent next to the tombstone every night. After the dog died, they began to see the ghostly figure of a dog in the cemetery, in which they recognized the faithful Bobby. Beside him invariably stood the ghost of a tall man, apparently the spirit of the buried John Gray. The cemetery minister claims that the ghost of John Gray and his dog are relatively peaceful, which cannot be said about the ghosts of the prisoners of the Black Mausoleum prison, which was located on the site of the cemetery at the end of the 17th century. There, by order of King Charles II, 1,200 political opponents of the monarch were brutally murdered.
Restless souls disturb visitors, frightening them with unexpected touches and strong jolts. The management of the Franciscan cemetery hoped that the ghosts would disappear after a Catholic priest performed a special ceremony at the cemetery. However, the mysterious phenomena did not stop, and the vague figures of the people who died there are still seen in the cemetery.
The theory that the death of a person in a state of psychological shock can lead to the appearance of a ghost is also shared at the oldest English university, Cambridge, where its own ghost lives in Peterhouse College, built in the 13th century. In May 1999, when the professors and associate professors gathered in the Peterhaus living room decorated with antique oak panels for a festive candlelight dinner, a ghost appeared in front of them.
Promotional video:
According to eyewitnesses, it resembled a cigar-shaped clot of fog, where a human head and hands could hardly be guessed. The ghost walked silently in the direction of the bay window, near the windows of which the outline of the figure faded and disappeared. The ghost from Peterhouse College did not leave teachers and students alone even during the day. Constantly distributed mysterious knocks and creaks interfered with the educational process, although the students were completely delighted with what was happening.
The excitement intensified even more after the unpopular Dean Graham Ward was found lying in a semi-swooning state on the spiral staircase of the college, who was allegedly touched by a ghost. Curiously, after Dean Graham Ward was personally convinced of the reality of the ghost, he ordered an investigation - the reason for the appearance of the ghost in college. The commission looked up the old archives and found that in 1789 college scholar Francis Davs had hanged himself in the Peterhaus building. Agreeing on the issue of whose ghost disturbs the peace of teachers and students, the commission turned to the priest. After inspecting the place, he recommended that a funeral mass be celebrated for the suicide.
However, Mass was never served. This was opposed by graduates of Peterhouse, who turned to the college management with a petition ending with the words: "Ghosts are an invaluable cultural, academic and historical heritage of Cambridge and must be protected by law and the charter of the university." However, not all horrible deaths that lead to the appearance of ghosts belong to the distant past and are associated with old mansions or cemeteries.
For several years now, the ghost has been visiting the modern Boxer Training Center located in the New York Bronx area. For some time now, the owner of the Center, Jim Glancy, began to hear mysterious sounds at night. Upstairs in the hall, fast, heavy blows were heard, as if an experienced athlete was practicing a technique on a punching bag. Whenever Glancey went up into the hall, he saw only an empty semi-dark room, in the far corner of which a pear swayed rhythmically.
The owner of the boxing center made inquiries and found out a story that, from his point of view, explains a strange phenomenon, in 1993, when there was a meat processing plant in the building of the future boxing center, Clyde Mudget, who had just been released from the New York penal colony, made his way through the chimney. The perpetrator hoped to find a hole at the bottom of the mine through which it would be possible to enter the building. Unfortunately, the chimney was five meters longer than the rope. Clyde broke loose and found himself in a stone sack with blank sooty walls. The chimney was connected to the central boiler room, and a few minutes later the failed robber died of suffocation.
As the owner of the Center, Jim Glancy, found out, who died in the chimney, Clyde was once one of the most promising boxers in New York and won the championship twice. He fought in the rings of Texas and Indiana, but the hunt for easy money led him to prison and stupid death. Probably now, concludes Jim Glancey, Clyde's spirit is training in an empty gym every night, desperate to catch up in life.
Igor CHERKASOV
