What is an Apparition?

An apparition is a spectral presence of people, animals or objects that have either ceased to exist (a revenant) or is physically in a different location (a double). When an apparition makes itself known via touch, especially as a wight on someone, it is called an incubus (1). Apparitions of the dead are also called ghosts (2). Apparitions rarely interact with the physical environment (3). Some people believe that if they see their own double, then their soul has left the body and death is imminent (4).

1. Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. volume 2.
2. Guiley, R.E. 1991. Harper’s Encyclopedia of Mystical & Paranormal Experience.
3. Rich, J. 2001. The Everything Ghost Book.
4. Reader’s Digest. 1992. Quest For The Unknown: Life Beyond Death.