A hiker in the Sichuan province of China thought they were seeing a ghost because they thought they could make out the shape and picture of a "ghost" in the distance, along with shining haloes and beams of sunlight through the clouds. The hiker thought the creature was waving to him from a distance as he studied the shape.
After a much longer buzz session, the hiker realised that it was a rare natural optical illusion that gave the impression that there were "ghosts" on the mountaintop.
The hiker quickly realised, though, that his mind was merely playing tricks on him and that he wasn't seeing a ghost. Through an illusion more commonly referred to as a Brocken spectre, he was able to see his own shadow.
What is a Brocken spectre?
According to Britannica, this natural occurrence was first noted in the Harz mountains of Germany in 1780. One particular summit in this mountain range is referred to by the name Brocken. Johann Silberschlag, a preacher from Germany who frequently travelled to the Alps, made the initial observation.
This happens when sunlight passes through light that has been refracted and moistened. There can be rings or bands of various colours around the observer. According to Brittanica, these are brought on by the diffraction of sunlight by nearby cloud droplets.
Authors like Charles Dickens and Lewis Carroll have written about this phenomena frequently observed in Europe, in works of international literature because they thought that viewing it was omen.
Over time, tales resembling the hiker have surfaced. A hiker in England captured evidence of what he had seen with his camera after spotting an "unknown figure" close to him in the Lake District in November 2022. Just a year earlier, another hiker claimed to have seen the same kind of figure in the same area. This hiker was certain he had seen a ghost following him. Florian Clément, a French hiker, claimed to have witnessed a figure being followed at all times. He realised later that what he had seen was probably a Brocken spectre.
