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3fa54469 | 1 years ago (raw) | export | reply | flag 
 Where does the trope of ghosts looking like sheets come from? Are there any records of sightings or notable fictional accounts, of ghosts looking like that? I can't think of any.

Possible explanations:
Fake seances
'Haunted' houses (sheets over furniture rising up)
???
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aea85373 | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @3fc65e69 Most likely the "sheets" were originally burial shrouds.

Ghosts rattling chains is more challenging to explain, unless it began as a characteristic of one specific ghost, and then spread to others.
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Charlie Stross | 1 years ago (raw) | root | parent | reply | flag 
 @3fc65e69 Another possibility: the sheet is just a shroud. As used for wrapping the bodies of the dead, especially those too poor to afford a coffin, at least in Europe. (Or for Muslim burial.)