It happens all too often. Someone will stare at a photograph long enough to start seeing ghosts or strange things in the background. Or they will listen to a piece of audio and when the typical white noise fluctuates a bit, they miraculously hear a voice. People will often see what they want to see, and hear what they want to hear. The human brain tries to make order out of chaos. This is why we see shapes in clouds. It can be a great tool for our creativity. But it can also deceive us, and far too many people automatically assume what they’re seeing must be paranormal. Case in point: this story about a picture taken 50 years ago (the author of this article can’t do math, apparently) that supposedly contains a picture of a ghost that nobody ever noticed until six weeks ago.
Hey…can the rest of us get a look at this ghost?
A ghostly apparition from Lourdes is quickly becoming a major talking point in one Limerick city’s accessories shop.
A photo taken of a group of parishioners who travelled to Lourdes nearly 60 years ago has captured what appears to be a ghostly apparition behind the congregation.
The photo, which is in the window of Glow Fashion Accessories on Denmark Street, has been causing quite a stir among passers-by since it was put on display by the shop owner Deirdre O’Grady last week.
The eerie image shows a group shot of the Franciscan Pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1962.
However it wasn’t until six weeks ago that the supernatural figure was spotted by its owners while redecorating.
“The photo was hanging in my husband’s parents’ house for 50 years,” says Deirdre O’Grady. “My sister-in-law was part of the group which had travelled as part of the Franciscan Pilgrimage to Lourdes in 1962 and the photo had been hanging on the wall since. It was only in the last few weeks my brother-in-law took it down as he was repainting the house and the apparition in the photo was spotted,” she explains.
“The image had gone unnoticed until six weeks ago. My brother-in-law Des showed it to me three weeks ago and I thought it was fantastic and that it should be shown,” adds Deirdre.
“I decided to put it up in the window last week and within a day it had attracted a lot of attention,” she says.
“I don’t know what it is myself,” says Deirdre. “I’m open minded and I’m leaving it open to being scrutinised. People are welcome to come and make up their own minds. I’ll be leaving it up for the next week at least,” she adds.
I think it’s interesting that the article doesn’t show a nice closeup shot of the alleged ghost, just a young girl making a silly face and pointing to a black blob on the photo. So it’s basically impossible for the reader to make up their own mind. Point of story is, if you have to strain really hard (or for 50 years) to see of hear something, it’s not worth straining to see of hear.
