Hampton Court Palace “Ghost” Is Great Trickery

27 Friday Feb 2015

Posted by The Haunted Librarian in Breaking the News, Castles, Ghost Stories, In the News, Photography, Urban Legends

≈ Comments Off on Hampton Court Palace “Ghost” Is Great Trickery

Tags

dame sybil penn, Ghosts, hampton court palace, king henry viii, photography, the grey lady

Hampton Court “Ghost”

Hampton Court Palace “Ghost” Is Great Trickery

The Internet was abuzz this week and not just with renegade llamas. Twelve-year-old schoolgirl Holly Hampsheir was touring Hampton Court Palace with her cousin Brook McGee. With her smartphone, Holly snapped a picture of her cousin’s backside and low and behold a ghost appeared. The girls claim that they did not immediately notice the ghost until they reviewed the pictures. News of a possible image of the Dame Sybil Penn, a.k.a. The Grey Lady, quickly spread. Unfortunately, the picture is a fake.

Hampton Court Palace is plagued with sadness. Anne Boleyn resided at the palace before her beheading in 1536. Another wife of King Henry VIII Jane Seymour died weeks after childbirth at the palace in 1537. Another wife Catherine Howard was imprisoned at the palace prior to her beheading in 1542. All three supposedly haunt the palace. Hampton Court has a lot of reasons for activity.

The latest claim involves Dame Sybil Penn. Dame Sybil was a servant to four Tudor monarchs. She lived at Hampton Court. She died in the late 1500s from smallpox. Rumors of her haunting began shortly after her tomb was disturbed around 1829. However, no one has ever taken a picture of Dame Sybil, or any of King Henry VIII’s former wives, until now.

The image is a fake. Although a “photography expert” was consulted and claimed not to find tampering, the image has several tale-tell signs. First, the image is too colorful. The “ghost” appears in the center of the image. Noticeably, the spirit looks elongated. Further, the figure is either hovering or incredibly tall. Finally, there is simply too much hair. Never has a piece of evidence been so clear. Nor has there been any evidence of this type found at Hampton Court. This is just too good to be true.

See for yourself and feel free to comment.

Update: Seems another true expert on photography Mick West debunked this image as a panorama glitch in the iPhone. Please read his incredibly interesting article Debunked: Hampton Court Ghost Photo [iPhone Panorama Glitch]. Huge thanks to Mick for clarifying!

I’m a Believer

20 Monday Jan 2014

Posted by The Haunted Librarian in Angels, Cemeteries, Churches, Ghost Hunting, Live Paranormal, Research

≈ Comments Off on I’m a Believer

Tags

Beliefs, churches, Ghosts, God, Religion

Statue of the Virgin Mary.

I’m a Believer

Recently I was interviewed on Paranormal I-Con (weekly radio show on www.liveparanormal.com) and was asked about my belief system. Short answer: I’m a believer. Now for the long answer.

I’ve always believed in the paranormal and supernatural. Further, I’ve never doubted the existence of a God. For me the two go hand-in-hand. “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” (Nicene Creed). I truly mean it and I’m not alone. According to the Pew Research Center, 92% of Americans believe in God. That’s 9 out of 10 adults, an impressive number even though that number is slowly declining from the 98% from 1953-1967. Specifically, 78% of adults in the United States identify themselves as “Christian.” I’m included in this number. Although raised Catholic, I identify myself as an Episcopalian. During the 1950s, nearly every American identified themselves with some form of organized religion (Gallup Poll, 2011). That number has dramatically shifted. Now 1 in 10, 10%, of those polled are not affiliated with an organized religious group.

Now for the ghosts: Almost half of all adult Americans believe in ghosts (CBS News Study 2009). More women (56%) believe than men (48%). While the skeptics rise up and proclaim the need for evidence, most believers have not had a paranormal experience (77%). They just believe, as do I. Even though researchers speculate the reasons for why people blindly believe (most notably as a calming mechanism in a chaotic world), my reason is simple: Why would God place people only on earth? And if there is a Heaven, why can’t spirits travel between the veils? I don’t require proof to believe. I believe in order to search for proof.