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In 1520, someone mistranslated the story of the Three Wise Men. Thanks to that error, the Ghostbusters exist.

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If I now tell you to think of a ghost, it is very likely that you will approach the idea of a floating and semi-transparent spirit, just like in the Ghostbusters movie. But the truth is that the idea of the specter was not always like that, and it has been in recent years that this concept has been introduced into popular culture, sweeping away all previous ideas.

The twist that the idea of the ghost has taken in our culture is especially peculiar because, although the idea was already materialized in a similar way in ancient writings, where people were described floating as if they were a shadow, it was actually modern technology that popularized this image of the ghost. Specifically, an invention from 1797 called Phantasmagoria.

The 3 Wise Men as the origin of the apparition

To find the first representations of ghosts, understanding them as the appearance of something that has already disappeared and returns to life to warn or attract the attention of family or acquaintances, we actually have to go way back. Beyond the folklore of each community, the idea already appeared in texts such as those of Virgil from the Roman Empire or Homer’s Odyssey in the 8th century BCE.

Already in those writings, the idea of a ghost was talked about as the representation of a loved one returning to life as a shadow or a being capable of floating, but they always did so as something corporeal. There was a physicality capable of being carried by the wind that, combined with the myth of the zombie derived from catatonia or coma, conditions capable of simulating death when the person was actually alive, ended up dragging the concept to the idea of a corporeal being that returned from beyond.

Reyes Magos
Reyes Magos

To get closer to the idea of a ghostly apparition, we need to go a little further, specifically to the use of the term in a translation from 1520 when talking about how The 3 Wise Men materialized before the child Jesus. Although it was an error in translating how they arrived to him, from then on, the concept of appearance began to be used to name those shadows that evolved into the ghosts we know today.

The key to this transformation, inherited from the literature of the 1600s, when the apparition began to become synonymous with ghost, is actually due to the first steps in the dawn of photography before the technology was invented. It was around 1797 when a series of spectacles called Phantasmagoria began to gain fame.

From Phantasmagoria to Ghostbusters

The Phantasmagoria shows involved enclosing the spectators in a dark room where images of monsters and spirits were projected onto a translucent screen. As they were projected in the air and appeared semi-transparent due to the screen fabric, the idea of ghosts as a floating spirit began to seep into the collective imagination, leaving behind the general norm that referred to the myth of the living dead who rose from their resting place in physical form to torment their loved ones.

Photography
Photography

Up to that point, the idea of a ghost was that of a physical being that required doors to be opened for it to enter and, of course, could not pass through walls. Another potential addition to further change the collective imagination until reaching the style that we attribute to science fiction and horror genres.

With the advent of photography, at a time when taking those snapshots was especially difficult due to the time cameras needed to capture the image, the subject had to remain still for a long time to prevent the image from being distorted. That’s why in those images you will hardly see anyone smiling, as holding the expression still for several minutes was much more difficult.

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If at any point during the process one of the subjects moved or disappeared from the scene, the image became blurred giving the sensation that something had disappeared. Showing a perfectly recognizable semi-transparent silhouette, the trend of Phantasmagoria caused photographers to turn those flaws into a very lucrative business.

By selling those distorted images under the premise that ghosts appeared in them, the concept expanded and, with it, the idea of the ghost as a transparent being became canon. Alongside that influence, the success of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1843 completed the circle by uniting, in a way, the religious aspect of the apparition of The 3 Wise Men with what would later be referenced by the Ghostbusters.

Image |  Nina-no

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