Okay, we have not been able to scientifically prove their existence, but we can all agree that they tend to frighten and even terrorize people and they always appear when you least expect them. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet or Dicken’s Christmas Tale to the Blair Witch Project, literature first and then cinema, it seems that there are quite a few people wanting to prove scientists wrong. Undoubtedly, Casper or Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter are the favorites of children. The older prefer to see other kind of ghosts such as Abraham Lincoln, Elvis Presley, Anne Boleyn, The Phantom of the Opera or Bloody Mary, among others. The downside is that you never know exactly when or where to expect them. If you want to get to know them, you only have to visit places where to find the most famous ghosts in the world. Do you dare to wait for them?
Abraham Lincoln. White House. Washington DC
Legend has it that the sixteenth President of the United States saw his tragic fate before being killed. He dreamed that he was attending a funeral at the White House and, when he asked who had died, somebody said: the President himself! Since then, there are many who claim to have seen him walk the halls of the presidential residency, such as the first ladies Grace Coolidge or Eleanor Roosevelt, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and even Winston Churchill himself. The British prime minister found him sitting by the fireplace when he was getting out of the tub naked. To his astonishment he could only say, “Good afternoon, Mr. President. It seems that I am at a disadvantage”. As an answer to that, good Lincoln only smiled and went. It is not the only eternal inhabitant of Pennsylvania Avenue 1600. Andrew Jackson, David Burnes and Anne Surratt, among others, also refuse to leave. Who wants to be President of the United States now?
Anne Boleyn. Tower of London. United Kingdom
Anyone who thinks that the life of the second wife of King Henry VIII and mother of Queen Elizabeth I ended the day she was falsely accused by her husband of adultery, incest and witchcraft, and sentenced to death by beheading, is very wrong. Not only did she keep her head high until the end but still does almost 500 years later. She has been seen in many places around the world but her presence is most frequent in the Tower of London where she was imprisoned waiting for her trial and then buried in the chapel of San Pedro. She always appears as beautiful as people remembered, wearing a delicate white dress, and with her hands holding… her head! The last time she was seen was in 1933.
The Phantom of the Opera. Opera Garnier in Paris. France
His story is one of love but also of hatred and revenge. Erick’s humble origins -that’s the name of the ghost actually-, and a deformity on his face marked him for life to the point of escaping the horror circus he was forced to work at. During his journey, that would take him to the Opera Garnier in Paris, he learned juggling and ventriloquism from the gypsies and even traveled to the court of the Shah of Persia where he worked as an architect and … as a murderer! Very useful skills for his arrival in Paris, no doubts. You already know the story, right? Visit the building’s cellars and passageways on your next visit to Paris and discover more details. A real serial murderer who will do anything for the love of Christine Daae. Of course it is only a novel but remember that its author, Gaston Lerox, was sure that the ghost existed until the end of his days.
The Flying Dutchman
In the oceans around the world, especially in the South Seas. Now a pirate story set in the Caribbean. A XVII century merchant vessel encounters a terrible storm, but its mad captain, deaf to the crew’s pleas, refuses to look for a refuge. As a punishment, he is condemned to roam the seas for eternity. The Flying Dutchman is not the ghost of a person but an entire ghost ship captained by Hendrik van der Decken that appears to sailors from around the world as a blur on the horizon. It is said to bring bad luck or to predict doom for the beholder. Even King George of England said having encountered in 1881. He apparently saw the vessel sailing at full speed aiming at his boat, but disappeared into nothingness a second before the collision. The last one who saw it was Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean.
“Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary…”
These are the secret words to be repeated up to three times to invoke the spirit of Mary Worth, best known as Bloody Mary. One can see her on mirrors in a fairly common game played at pajama parties in America, where children stand in front of a mirror and say her name three times. She then appears out of nowhere to disfigure your face or even kill you. Do you dare to try? Mirrors have something magical, since they have always been considered as gateways to other worlds. Many stories have been created around Mary Worth but the truth is that she was a woman who murdered all her children and was accused of witchcraft. Or was it actually Mary Whales?
Are you ready? Want to visit some other famous ghosts in the world? We leave you some clues to find them: The Bell Witch, in which the Blair Witch Project movie is inspired, is one of the oldest ghosts in the United States and lives on a farm in Tennessee; the Stanley Hotel in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado is so full of famous ghosts that Stephen King had to write a book about them -The Shining- that Stanley Kubrick brought to the big screen. Does this story sound familiar to you? You can also see ghosts on the big screen with the restless spirits that live in the quiet town of Amityville, near New York. And if you’d rather stay in Europe, specifically in Nortfolk (England), where the most famous ghost picture in history was taken. The protagonist is Lady Dorothy Townshend and the photo was taken several centuries after her death. Do you want to know more? All these poltergeist are waiting for you to discover all their secrets.
