Partial ghosts

There is a particular type of ghost sighting which has always puzzled me - partial human figures. Such sightings are very rare but they are persistent. It is difficult to understand such sightings either in terms of natural explanations or even as paranormal phenomena.

Recently I saw just such a ghostly partial figure. There was a pair of legs, with no attached body, walking in front of a bush ahead of me. Unlike the recent misty figures. I never thought for a millisecond it was a ghost but I was nevertheless impressed by the effect. I could see how, in the right circumstances, someone might report the sighting as a partial figure ghost. The cause of the ghost effect was the glass window I was looking out of at the bush beyond. I saw the reflection of someone walking behind me. I could only see their legs, brightly illuminated by sunlight, because the rest of their body was in deep shadow.

But wouldn’t someone seeing this effect realise it was a reflection - probably, in most cases but not necessarily all. If a witness was in an unfamiliar location, particularly at night, maybe. And the witness might be concentrating on the bizarre sight of a partial and so not notice other vital details, like glass. So reflections are certainly a possibility to be considered when investigating reports of partial figure.

The phantom hand photo is a recreation, using the same conditions, that illustrates the effect. There was no photo editing involved.  Sadly, it is not desperately convincing because you can see marks on the window in the foreground. There is, of course, at least one other obvious possible natural explanation for a partial ghost – hallucination.