Being plentiful , far-famed , or influential has plenty of fringe benefit — but head for the hills the spirit world ’s torment is n’t necessarily one of them . Here are eight prominent individuals , both past and present , who have either claim or been say to have had close encounters withghosts .
1. Joan Rivers
Few people — either be or dead — would have wanted to mess with Joan Rivers . But when the recent comedian purchased a swanky Upper East Side penthouse condoin 1988 , she see herself facing a formidable opposition : the spiritual niece of moneyman and banker J.P. Morgan .
river ’s new home was a Gilded Age mansion , which was convert into condos in the 1930s . When she taste to renovate her own dig , however , she notice a peculiar presence : “ It was just very foreign , ” Rivers recounted in a 2009 sequence ofCelebrity Ghost Stories , according totheNew York Post . “ The apartment was inhuman . I could never get any of my electrical things to run correctly . ” She also recalled that her pet Yorkshire Terrier refused to enter the room for calendar month , and she saw strange graffiti on the wall .
When the building ’s elevator wheeler dealer heard about the strange occurrences , he reportedly enounce , “ I imagine Mrs. Spencer is back . ” Instead of going head - to - head with the phantasm — who reportedly still thought of herself as “ the grande skirt of the building , ” grant to Rivers — the comediancalled ina New Orleans vodoun priestess to clean the home of spirits , and Rivers account that her dog finally came into the flat . But the hauntings soon returned — until Rivers made nice with the wraith by hang a portrait of her in the construction lobby and leave prime out for her .
In 2015 , less than a year afterRivers ’s death , a Saudi princepurchasedthe penthouse for $ 28 million . accord to reports , he disliked her decorating fashion and planned to bowel - renovate the apartment . No word , however , on whether he ’s also in person experienced the ire of Mrs. Spencer .
2. King George IV
Raynham Hallis a palatial land in Norfolk , England , with a nervous backstory : It ’s reportedly haunted by a ghost bed as the “ Brown Lady of Raynham Hall”—and it ’s said that King George IVonce saw the spiritwith his own oculus .
The Brown Lady ( who gets her name from her brown brocade dress ) becameworld - famousin 1936 after lensman fromCountry Lifemagazine allegedly assume a picture of her floating down the stairs in Raynham Hall . She ’s believed to be the sprightliness of Dorothy Walpole , the baby of Great Britain ’s first Prime Minister , Robert Walpole .
An important noble sept called the Townshends built Raynham Hall in 1620 , and a member of the clan — Charles Townshend , an eighteenth century British secretarial assistant of state — wed Dorothy Walpole . The marriage was rumor to have been a bad one , and in 1726 Dorothy died around the long time of 40 , reportedly from smallpox . ( One alternative tale state that Townshend push her down the estate ’s heroic staircase and she break her neck opening ; another claims she died of a broken warmheartedness . )
Dorothy ’s spirit linger , and Norfolk caption says that when King George IV was the young Prince of Wales , he sleep in the estate ’s State Bedroom and arouse to see “ a little lady all dressed in brown , with disheveled hair and a face of ash-gray lividity . ” The succeeding king impart Raynham Hall at once , and swore he would never spend another hour in the cursed house again .
3. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
At the flush of his fame , Sherlock HolmesauthorSir Arthur Conan Doylebecameobsessedwith the paranormal . He believed in ghosts , wrote books aboutspiritualismandfairies , and attended séances . He even open apsychic bookstall . Doyle did n’t believe he possessed supernatural powers himself , but in his 1930 bookThe Edge of the Unknown , he describe several chance brushes he ’d had with spirits .
In one anecdote , Doyle describe waking up “ with the clear consciousness that there was someone in the way , and that the mien was not of this world . ” His body was paralyzed , but he could still hear footsteps echoing across the room . Then , he said he smell out a bearing leaning over him , and heard them whisper , “ Doyle , I come to enjoin you that I am sorry . ” Moments later on , the mystic visitant vanished , and Doyle ’s dead body unfroze .
Doyle ’s wife kip through the full thing , but Doyle was convert that the experience was n’t a pipe dream . He believed the spook to be a “ a sure individual to whom I had tried to give psychic solace when he was bereaved . ” The human being had turned down Doyle ’s offering “ with some contempt , and died himself shortly afterwards . It may well be that he wished to extract regret , ” Doyle wrote . As for his eternal rest paralysis , the author believed that the spirit needed to take over power from a living individual to come out in the strong-arm world , and it had chosen him .
4. Sting
Fans of Sting sleep together he ’s no stranger tosinging about ghostwriter . But in a few interview , the ex - Police frontman lay claim to have ascertain one , too .
At the prison term of his sighting , Stinghad young childrenand owned a sixteenth - century English manor house . One Nox , the musician awoke with a jolt at 3 a.m. He “ looked into the quoin of the elbow room and thought I come across [ my wife ] Trudie standing there with a child — our child — in her arm , staring at me , ” the musicianrecalledin a 2009 audience with BBC Radio 2 .
Sting then turn over over and acknowledge that Trudie was still in seam . He “ suddenly got this terrible chill , ” he said . “ And she woke up and said ‘ Gosh , who is that ? ’ and she saw this woman and a child in the street corner of the way . ”
The spectral figure disappeared , but Sting ’s spooky confrontation were far from over : “ A lot of thing happen in that house , a wad of fly objects and voice and foreign , unusual thing befall , ” he said . “ When you live in previous houses , you get this energy there . ”
5. Athenodorus Cananites
Historians think Roman magistrate and writer Pliny the Younger for his striking , first - hand accountofMount Vesuvius ’s eruption in 79 CE , but he could also tell a upright ghost story . Around 100 CE , the scribewrote a letterrecounting the prison term the Greek Stoic philosopherAthenodorus Cananitesstayed in a haunted house .
“ There was in Athens a star sign , heavy and spacious , which had a risky reputation as though it was filled with pestilence , ” the narrative begin . “ In the dead of night , a noise was frequently heard resembling the clashing of Fe which , if you listen carefully , sound like the rattling of chains . The noise would seem to be a aloofness away , but it would start coming nearer … and close … and close . Immediately after this , a apparition would appear in the flesh of an old man , emaciated and squalid , with bristle hairsbreadth and a retentive beard , and rattling the chains on his mitt and foot as he strike . ”
The plate was eventually give up , and it remained empty until Athenodorus came to town . He considered bribe the belongings , but was suspicious about its low price . The philosopher would before long learn that the star sign was haunted — but surprisingly , this made him want to grease one’s palms it even more .
Athenodorus purchased the home , moved in , and stayed up tardily working , hoping to run into the ghostwriter . Sure enough , he eventually hear the rale of Sir Ernst Boris Chain , looked up , and find out the old man ’s spirit stick out in front of him .
The philosopher pretend to neglect the ghostwriter , but the raring ghoul beckoned toward Athenodorus , motion for him to get along outside . He did , and the old man vanished — but the next day , Athenodorus order for the spot he disappeared on to be dug up . There , he found the ancient skeleton of a man enclothe in chemical chain .
The bone were given a proper burial , and the ghost never haunt Athenodorus — or any other citizen of Athens — again .
6. Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd ’s experience with intent are n’t limited toGhostbusters . In a 2013interviewwithEsquire , he take to have once live in a Hollywood dwelling that was haunt by vocalizer Cass Elliot , from American folk rock-and-roll group The Mamas & the Papas , along with the shade of a man buried under a hillside next to the theatre .
“ I had several experiences , ” Aykroyd recall . “ I saw things go around on our counter , and doors opening move and closing . The stave also had experiences , direct contact in term of tactile touching , and then turn around and there ’s no one there . ”
One twenty-four hours , Aykroyd claimed , one of the two ghosts crawled in bed with him while he was claim a catnap . He woke up “ in a enchantment , " he said , and notice that the bedroom ’s antecedently closed room access was ajar . Then , the worker spotted “ a depression in the mattress , like somebody was get in there , ” he say . Not one to be afraid of no ghosts , Aykroyd — whose family has agreat interest in the supernatural — decide to snuggle the liveliness or else of screaming for assistance .
7. Cher
In a Reddit AMA , Cher revealed that not only does she believe inlife after love , she also believes in wraith : “ I love ghosts,”she said . “ I favour ghosts to some people . ” The singer believes that her ex-husband - husband , Sonny Bono , who died 1998 , turns on a visible light in her house : “ I have a beautiful chandelier that he makes the light go on when it is impossible , there is no power on . ”
8. Keanu Reeves
In 2014 , Keanu Reeves visitedJimmy Kimmel Liveandrecounted the timehe’d see a ghost as a tiddler . Reeves said he was around 6 or 7 years older , and his family had just moved to New York from Australia . He and his nanny , Renata , were in the bedroom . “ There was a room access and , all of a sudden , we ’re seem over there and this jacket comes waving through the doorway , just empty — there ’s no capitulum , there ’s no body , there ’s no legs , ” Reeves recalled . “ It ’s just there and then it disappears . ” When he reckon over at the she-goat , she appeared to be shocked , mouth love feast , which led Reeves to think “ that was genuine ! ” He described the experience as “ cool . ”
Additional Source : The Mammoth Book of True Hauntings
A rendering of this chronicle ran in 2017 ; it has been update for 2023 .
