Ectoplasm
Gelatinous substance that exudes from the body of a spiritualist medium during a seance, which the spirits being communicated with are able to mould into shapes allowing them to communicate with the living.
Stone tape theory
Idea that recurrent hauntings are produced by the replaying of recordings stored in the physical environment, analogously to tape recordings.
Phantasmagoria
18th-century ghost show developed by the impresario Paul de Philipsthal, also known as Philidor.
Elemental
Type of primitive spiritual entity from the pagan past, perhaps the manifestation of a race memory, usually associated with a single place.
Revenant
Spirit of a dead person returned to visit the living, the common conception of a ghost.
Spirit photography
Technique popular in the 19th century to capture the invisible spirits of the deceased.
Spell (magical)
Verbal charm to be spoken or chanted, sometimes a single magic word such as Abracadabra or the Renervate encountered in the fictional Harry Potter series of books.
Manchester Mummy
Mummified body of Hannah Beswick (1688–1758, a wealthy woman with a pathological fear of premature burial.
Peg o’ Nell
Malevolent water spirit of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England.
Samuel Hibbert-Ware
English geologist and antiquarian.