Types of Apparitions
The appearance of a deceased individual. Authors such as Catherine Crowe in the book Night Side of Nature or Ghosts and Ghost Seers (1848), Apparitions and Haunted Houses: A Survey of the Evidence (1939) by Sir Ernest Bennett, Apparitions (1953) by G. N. M. Tyrell, Apparitions by Celia Elizabeth Green and Charles McCreery, have come a long way in researching these various types of apparitions:
Adumbratio: Literally an "anticipatory shadow" that appears before death.
Bystander Apparition: In Mysteries of the Unknown: Phantom Encounters by Time-Life Books, this apparition seemingly appears to the wrong person or a complete stranger in order to let its presence be known to the person whom it should have appeared to.
Collective Apparition: An apparition seen by two or more percipients.
Crisis Apparition: Tyrell described this sort of apparition as appearing suddenly at the very moment of crisis or death. However, Tyrell goes on to explain that there are rare instances of delayed crisis apparitions that appear hours after the incident. In Phantasms of the Living, Cases of Telepathy Printed in the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research During 35 Years, Eleanor Mildred and Etal Sidgwick provide the papers from pivotal members of London’s Society for Psychical Research, Edmund Gurney, Frederic William, Henry Myers and Frank Podmore concerning this sort of apparition.
Deathbed Apparition: The appearance of a spirit in the room before someone has died, called a deathbed visitation.
Experimental Apparition: Tyrell defines this type of apparition as a double a person has intentionally projected to appear before someone else. It is considered a double and not an astral form because the person is oblivious to the actions of his or her double.
Haunting Apparition: In A Dictionary of Ghosts, Peter Haining defines this type of apparition as a figure that reappears in the same place repeatedly. G. N. M. Tyrell, however, calls this sort a reoccurring apparition in his book Apparitions.
Phantoms en masse: The appearance of a large group of spirits.
Phantom Traveler: In the Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, author Rosemary Ellen Guiley explains this is an apparition that is often mistaken for a living person at a public transportation terminal such as a bus station or airport.
Postmortem Apparition: Tyrell described this sort of apparition as appearing more than 12 hours after a person’s death.
Reciprocal Apparition: In the Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, author Rosemary Ellen Guiley explains this is an apparition of a living person that interacts with a person whom is aware of the presence.
Soulless Apparition: The image of an inanimate object.
Symbolic Apparition: In Apparitions and Precognition, Aiela Jafee believes that many apparitions are symbolic and are trying to communicate a message by whom they appear to, what times, what they are wearing, what they are doing, etc.
Take-away Apparition: This is a term used by Michael A. Thalbourne, Ph.D. in his book, A Glossary of Terms Used In Parapsychology (2003), to describe the appearance of a deceased person beside a deathbed with the sole purpose of guiding the infirm to the afterlife.
