Ghostly Things: The Haunting Found In Nature

There are ghostly nuances in the nature world that make you do a double-take. Let's have a look at some of these haunting beauties - 

PLANT ECTOPLASM

This fun plant is called Verbesina virginica. It is a plant that exudes the moisture from its roots to protect it during the icy season and this freezes into beautiful ribbons. Ghostly eh?

Spooklights

This phenomena is seen in many woods around the world. We call them ghost lights or spooklights and they have many legends going back hundreds of years of reporting. They appear to be something in nature yet unexplained.

Ghostly Glow

Some parts of the ocean experience a glowing algae and baceria that creates bioluminescence of the sea.

Frozen

Figures encased in ice. This lighthouse is a study in ghostly appearance created by a formidable, translucent, white substance we call ice. Frozen in place, it has a very ghostly presence.

Ghost Ships 

This ghost ship phenomena is called Fata morgana. It occurs with the right conditions when light is bent on the horizon, creating a mirage. The boat is actually on the water but we are seeing it in the sky. If you've ever seen a heat mirage off the ground, you know how it can create a very confusing horizon. 

Ghost Mist

Fog. There is nothing more spectral and atmospheric than billows of fog. This fog in the photo above is from my childhood estate. A friend took a shot of it rolling in and the front veranda light on at the house. For a property so very haunted by specters on the land, it is rather chilling. Sometimes we see shapes in fog, other times we see outlines of what was eaten up by the mist. Our world becomes very limited and small as the opaque crepe quarantines us from civilization. 

There are a lot of old stories of ghosts being mists shaped like humans. Apparitions are clearly a form. There are, however, some kinds of ghostly phenomena that are mists. We had odorless smoke, of the quality of a cigarette burning in an ash tray, at my childhood home. We also had a blue mist that would form and with it came an immense cold. It usually formed atop of people as they slept. 

Deep Sea Apparitions

Found in the deepest part of the sea, the Mariana Trench, this snailfish above was found at 26,716 feet (8143m).

Ghost Plant/Corpse Plant

Monotropia uniflora is also known as the ghost plant or corpse plant. It is a perennial found in Russia, North and South America.

Howling

There is nothing more haunting than the sound howling wolves or wind -

Ghosts in the Sky

Sometimes, a haunting comes from above - a cloudy specter morphing before our eyes.

Zombie Fingers

Known as "Dead Man's Fingers" fungus, this delight is truly horrifying on the forest floor.

Northern Lights - aurora borealis

If the sky could be haunted, the aurora borealis, or Northern Lights, would be the culprit. This phenomena occurs when electrically charged particles from the sun hit the Earth's atmosphere and collide with gases like oxygen and nitrogen.

Haunting Sky Sounds

Some call them skyquakes, others call them Earth trumpets. These odd sounds happen spontaneously around the world and we have yet to identify the source.

Trapped in a Tree

Faces in trees, trees knotted and shaped like humans. They definitely define haunted forests!

Shadows

The phenomena of shadow people has been an unexplained for some time, although a lot of theories abound. When we see shadows, we can jump and startle sometimes. I was in the kitchen one time at night, reaching for a utensil and the ceiling light hit my hand causing a moving shadow on the granite counter and I startled, thinking it was a mouse until my eyes fixed on it fully. Shadow people are seen out of the corner of the eye first and if you're lucky you can turn your head and watch them directly, although usually a fairly fleeting encounter.


We came to call these figures shadow people because they appear to be utterly devoid of any detail, as if they suck the light right out of their shapes like a black hole of humanoids. In fact, I've often postulated if the 3-dimensional looking shadow might be the shadow cast by an other-dimensional being. Instead of a 2D shadow like we cast, they would cast a 3D one....

Quantum Ghosts

Utilizing a quantum camera, scientists managed to capture some "ghosts" in the images. They caught images of objects from photons, with photons that had never encountered the object. Quantum entanglement is basically a theory that particles that are entangled, can be separated by huge distance and what happens to one, happens to the other simultaneously. In the case of this quantum image, some photons that were entangled with others were sharing the objects they were encountering. Haunting, isn't it???

Deep Sea Haunting Sounds

The sea haunts us, at least in audio. Some recorded sounds are truly unsettling.

Screaming Animals

Screaming frogs are not only ghost-like sounding, but downright annoying!

Our world is full of many wonders that resemble the life we are having right here but are intangible, like apparitions in a home or voices in an empty building. There are also things of nature that mimic the ghostly plane. Ah, so it appears that, while the ghostly plane haunts us, perhaps we haunt it too.