Surreal Viral Photo that May have Possibly Captured a Human Spirit

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...c51?yptr=yahoo

I put the tentative title cause I remember having a discussion about ghosts and spirits before on here and there are quite a few of you that are firm non-believers. I would just like to get your opinion on this article. It was taken at a long distance from the scene so that's why it's not super-clear.

RIP to the victim of course.

just another hoax i would assume

However i think its sad that people stop to take pictures of stuff like that.

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I was just thinking about some cinematic representations of the soul or something similar – the spheres of light that Death collects via the mouth in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen or the amorphous spirit in The Asphyx. I do wonder why the spirit should resemble the dead person at all, which really gives credence to the notion that ghosts are like an after-image captured in time, very much like taking a photograph.

The shape of this one oddly reminds me of the Christ statue in Rio.

Perfect timing

There should be a thread discussing all types of paranormal events. Cryptozoology and general unexplained mysteries. Believer or not a lot of it can be fascinating. I remember reading about some bizarre white web growing in some power plant a while ago. I should see what came of that, if anything.

P.S. That photo is bogus.

Why has the guys soul left his body there if he didn't die until later at the hospital?

Its nothing more than a neat image artefact. Possibly a smudge on the window of the truck, or lens flare.

IT'S ELVIS!!!

Camo, you rock.

There are theories that a human's spirit can leave its body before the body completely dies.

See above.

Also Camo (and Swan) it's quite obvious you didn't read the article as it says this:

I AM OFFENDED!!!

I think Camo's point is it could be anything normal, there's no reason to jump to the conclusion that it's a ghost.

It looks like it has a head, but the "head" is just leaves from the tree.

I'm sure there is with no evidence to back them up naturally. And yeah Swan got what i meant.

Snopes take on it - http://www.snopes.com/fatal-crash-spirit-photograph/

The photograph shows the scene of a crash with law enforcement and paramedics huddled around the motorcyclist. Just above them, and between two ambulances, an indistinct grey shape appears to be rising above the scene. Television anchors (and social media commenters) speculated that it might be a spirit ascending to the next plane, or perhaps an angel, snapped by a lucky trucker as he drove by.

It's absolutely possible, even probable, that the photo was not altered. However, this photograph doesn't show a spirit or an angel, but what's most likely an irregularly-shaped piece of dirt that has stuck to either the lens or the camera's internal sensor. Dirt or dust on the sensor of a camera assumes a greyish and fuzzy appearance in a photograph (and sometimes shows up as luminescent balls in night or high-contrast photography, to which the paranormally-minded sometimes refer as "spirit orbs"):

If the photograph is taken with a mobile phone's camera, the effect can be even more pronounced (and difficult to clean, if the dust is on an internal sensor):

We're not certain what Vazquez used to take the photograph, but judging by the large depth of field (the bushes closest to the photographer are only slightly blurrier than the ambulances, for example), it's clear that the lens is stopped down to a smaller aperture. That makes the issue of dust on the lens or the sensor even more pronounced:

Now when the lens is stopped down and aperture is significantly smaller, say at f/16, light rays coming from the lens diaphragm are perpendicular to the sensor filter. Because the angle is more or less straight, dust specks also cast direct and defined shadows on the sensor. That’s why dust shows up in images much smaller, darker and with more defined edges at small apertures.

A graph explains the concept for the more visually-minded:

Even if the photograph were proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be of a ghost or a spirit, it's unclear whose it would be or why it would be there, as the motorcyclist died later at the hospital, not on the scene.

Obviously i agree they are just being silly. It is clearly the soul of someone who hasn't even died yet.

Correct, there is a greater chance that it is merely an explainable natural oddity in that photograph. I agree that 90% of photographs like these can be explained. However, I just believe that there's a chance—even if it is a very, very small one—that there may be more out there than we know (or at least are told that we know)

The article said it and you made another comment about it, but I already told you about the theory about a soul leaving a body when it's in a vegetative state or very near death. Yes, there is no evidence to support this but that's why its called a theory. If you just flat-out refuse to believe in that possibility in any way shape or form though then I don't know what to tell you.

That's fine. PM me if you want, i'll absolutely send you a few things i find genuinely baffling and unexplainable. Stuff like this photo IMO is garbage, though, the absolute dregs of paranormal reasearch.

The soul of the guy who hadn't died yet though, agreed.

Why on earth would any logically thinking human being take some .. oh right.

lol

Here's some food for thought:

Every single human being that has ever lived, is living now, or has yet to be born will die. Death is a certain and we all know it will happen one day. That's something that we can all agree is 100% true.

But what exactly happens when we die? Something has to happen, even if it is indeed nothing. Ceasing to think or exist is still technically something that happens.

The ironic thing is that people say that they don't believe in anything paranormal because there's no universally-accepted evidence that it exists.

The fact of the matter is, even though the previous statement is true, there is also no real evidence that the paranormal doesn't exist. Take from that what you will, but I don't count out any possibility when it comes to this subject. Do I think there's a chance that there is in fact nothing after death and nothing paranormal actually exists? Yes. Do I think there's a chance that it's all real? Yes I also think there's a chance of that.

Heck, I don't even rule out the possibility of it being like the end of American Beauty,

View Spoilers

WARNING: "American Beauty Ending" spoilers below

when after Lester dies, he says in a monologue that all of his memories stretch out before him into what seems like a never-ending ocean, and that he's forever in his own past and thoughts. Pretty much saying that right when you die your brain goes into this mental state where it gives off the illusion of having some kind of afterlife in your memories. Or at least that's how I took it.

when after Lester dies, he says in a monologue that all of his memories stretch out before him into what seems like a never-ending ocean, and that he's forever in his own past and thoughts. Pretty much saying that right when you die your brain goes into this mental state where it gives off the illusion of having some kind of afterlife in your memories. Or at least that's how I took it.

I actually don't really think about paranormal stuff a ton though, so I might not have these super-smart-sounding answers. However, when something is brought up relating to this kind of stuff I am usually very interested.