In the 1860s, "spirit photography" suddenly became very popular. Practitioners would use a special technique to create the appearance of spectral figures in people's homes and family photos...and people couldn't get enough of them!

One photographer, William Hope, took things up a notch by actually claiming to be a medium, and that his photos were "proof" of ghosts living among us. Sure, that sounds completely bogus now, but when you see them, you won't be so sure!

1. Is that a ghost's arm under this table
Ghost under the table
© William Hope

2. Hope claimed that he didn't remember this woman ever being in the room.

Ghost woman
© William Hope
3. This might have been a lost daughter or relative.

Ghost of lost relative
© William Hope
4. Welsh medium Jake Thomas with his "grandmother's spirit" floating above him.

Welsh medium's grandmother
© William Hope
5. The man in this portrait can be seen with a long-deceased female colleague.

Female colleague
© William Hope
6. The fact that the unidentified male figure (or spirit) in this image is lopsided makes it so much creepier.

Lopsided ghost
© William Hope
7. That spirit does not look happy to be here.

Unhappy ghost
© William Hope
8. The spirit in this photo is the supposedly that man's second wife.

Man's 2nd wife
© William Hope
9. As if funerals weren't bad enough, a it looks like his spirit is hovering over the casket.

Ghost hovering over casket
© William Hope
10. There's not one but TWO ghosts in this photo.

Two ghosts
© William Hope
11. It's like her spirit is leaving her body.

Spirit leaving body
© William Hope
12. Welsh medium Will Thomas, the brother of medium Jake Thomas, sits with a mysterious man's face floating above him.

Will Thomas
© William Hope
13. It's like she's claiming the two men for the spirit world.

Female spirit
© William Hope
Yikes... No matter how many times I tell myself these aren't real, there's no denying that there's something super creepy about them!