Ghostly Image in Laser beam fan

[mliptack]

the only thing I did was tweak the colours of greyscale images to simulate lasers I didn't have.

HAHAHA!! Nice work!

[The_Doctor]

I've been involved in Urban Exploration for about 10 years now. I've been in most abandoned deserted and spooky places you can ever imaging.

I've been in some strange ones too, always alone, lived in one or two as well. Weirdest find was what looked like a small room on the side of a river in Bristol, England, on the Portway. Rubbish was there, and I saw light over it, and I knew the room was in a cliff. I had to go in, to figure out how I could see light. I assumed it must be coming down from some point above where light got in through some access a few feet higher up, I clambered over a large flytipped wardrobe and other junk, and the light was still ahead of me, at the same angle. That was impossible, it seemed, and I walked forward into the dark, and the pale glow was always ahead, always upward. A faint draught came from it, cold and strange because the place should have been warm, dark and small. Stairs began. I climbed. Three times on the right I felt, but could not see, a large cavern open up, the sounds I made echoing there, and several hundred steps later I found the opening, boarded up, and when I climbed over the boards I was in a street I knew was 300 feet high on the cliff top and at least 50 yards back from the edge. The place is known historically, it's an old funicular railway, that had at some point been converted to three cinemas, those being the caverns I heard and did not see. I went back with light several times, but nothing will beat the initial discovery. It was like those secret places normally only found in children's adventure stories. I always wanted to find something like it for myself, real, forgotten, and I got lucky that day.

Re ghosts in the head... Those things I saw cast by laser from frosted glass weren't in my head. You can interpret them as you like, but they were all found upright, which is a tad unusual, and those are (modified colour) but actual photos. That Nazgul-like one is especially creepy. Didn't think of it a Nazgul though, for ages, that was just a recognisable name I give it at times. I originally called it the Wandering Judge. A kind of death-sentencing judge of a kind who might have lived in times were most societies consisted of tribal villages. Doesn't matter if ghosts are real or not, what matters is what we do with the power of imagination.

[The_Doctor]

HAHAHA!! Nice work!

Diode 405 nm: Gamma 2.40,0.20,1.00; RGB -72,0,0
Argon 488 nm: Gamma 0.20,0.72,1.00; RGB -32,0,0
Argon 514 nm: Gamma 0.20,1.00,0.78; RGB -42,0,-36
DPSS 532 nm: Gamma 0.28,1.00,0.28; RGB -56,0,-64
Sodium 589 nm: Gamma 0.96,0.28,0.20; RGB 0,-32,-100
HeNe 633 nm: Gamma 1.00,0.20,0.20; RGB 0,-72,-100

For those who want to tweak. Paintshop Pro v6 was what I used.

[Zoof]

Psychology is neat. Just some comments on doc's upright appearence of humanoid images: If they didn't apear upright your imagination wouldn't have picked up on them. There are reports from marines standing watch at night in the middle of the desert reporting submarines approaching(!) If you stare for long enough imagination takes over. The mind _wants_ to see. Also pure silence is very disturbing because the mind will amplify signals that are in your own head - the mind needs input and will try to make sense of it even if there's nothing.

Here's an experiment to try among your friends. Get the outline of the continent of Africa and rotate it 90 deg CCW. Put it on a slide and ask people what part of the world it is. I experienced that nobody sees Africa until you present it the right way up !

[Zoof]

Sorry for sounding like a dry-ass scientist but that is my job

There are occaisions when I get spooked, especially late at night playing with lasers, but that just the human side of me

[LaserLover]

I saw a perfect skull projected on the ceiling in a very old house from a regular incandesent lamp and it's shade. Tried to re-create it later and couldnt. The old farm-house we live in now have some friendly (non-hostile) spirits who make their presence known occasionally Nothing threatening, just a little spooky. My wife didnt like her experience, tho..
-a man in the doorway playing a kazoo.. sounds funny but she didnt think it was amusing at all.

***** Ooooooooooow.....!
When we first moved into our current house we setup the sound system to keep the troops motivated in helping us and only gave them beer once the move was done. We setup our dining room and had a candle lit dinner for our first meal in this house. We were the second owners. the first one was a Police officer who died of a heart attack in the house.
We sat down at the table and I poured some wine . We had a toast and a sip then started to eat. I thought to myself, it would be nice to have music while we eat. The very next second the multisouce (radio, cassette, & CD ) kicks in one of the 3 CD's and starts playing by itself. I have never seen the stereo do this before or since. We joke about having a ghost with a romantic streak.

Checkout this seller on Ebay who's selling the recordings and pictures from a Civil war graveyard.See " http://tinyurl.com/2dgoex "

I think they smoked a dobbie when they took their 30 minute break before coming back to collect their equipment and take more pictures. Funny !

[The_Doctor]

Sorry for sounding like a dry-ass scientist but that is my job

Yeah, well, we can see faces in clouds and wood chip wallpaper if we're in the mood for it, and no funny substances need apply, but the art of telling a good ghost story is to suspend disbelief And that means you have to sound like you believe in it yourself to do that.

That aside, I still think it's a bit strange those things appearing the right way up. I often looked at stuff with my head tilted to see if they looked different, or better, at angles. Maybe I did miss opportunities as you say, not seeing them if the angle was extreme enough, but it was not for want of trying. I think in this case that some of those figures came from a small region of the glass where the geometry favoured that kind of shape.

Btw, another crucial part of story telling is suggestion, which is why I'll tell you that the names I gave those figures, reading left to right, top to bottom, are these:
The Human Phoenix, The Minstrel Sage (changed to The Piper), The Wandering Judge (sometimes Nazgul), and The Water Sprite (because I can't think of anything better).

[steve-o]

A man died in our old house too.
There is one room in the house that's always dark and cold. I put 18 lights (cinema style-25 watts ea) in that room and it still seems dreary. I painted it tangerine orange to try to brighten it up to no avail.. just cant figure it out.. Maybe somebody's buried under that room . (Insert scary music here)