In the video below, fast forward to the 8:22 mark and watch the illuminated doorway at the end of the hall.

Notice the odd shadow that walks by?

Various websites, including the blog Phantoms and Monsters, have featured the strange video, questioning whether the odd apparition is indeed a “ghost”, with the obvious implication that it is the disembodied spirit of the late King of Pop himself. With all this talk already of a UFO being witnessed over the singer’s former residence, it may not be particularly surprising that ghosts, spirits, and the afterlife may also have been things Jackson had been fascinated with throughout his time on Earth, and now with his passing, several reports have made similar assertions that Jackson’s own spirit may still be hanging around.

Michael Cohen, a journalist and “paranormal personality” who writes for the web-based news source All News Web notes that the alleged ghost in the CNN “Neverland video” is “probably just one of the crew, but who knows.” Elsewhere, Spike TV also featured a video on their website which points out a ghostly image of Jackson, appearing suddenly behind CNN anchor Anderson Cooper (see image below). In this instance, rather obviously, the image seems to appear due to a television screen oriented behind Cooper. However, the odd, shadow-like image in the CNN “Neverland” footage may be a little more difficult to explain.

ABOVE: Faces of death… Jackson’s ghost, or teleprompter-screen spying on Anderson Cooper?  

Speaking of Michael Jackson’s ghost popping up everywhere since the singer’s death, All News Web commented yesterday that “one rather expected consequence of the passing of the ‘King of Pop’, Michael Jackson, is a rash of alleged sightings of Jackson’s ghost,” with reports of Jackson’s phantasmal figure appearing in locales as varied as Mexico, Japan, the Philippines, and of course, the United States. “Many such events will be dreams and we can expected many more of these stories,” Cohen says. “If Michael Jackson brings comfort to so many of his fans we should not be too skeptical. Of course, some of these events may well be real.” One fan in the Philippines has even claimed that Jackson’s spirit appeared before her, curing her of an illness.

Strangely, the appearance of spirit manifestations resembling “Michael Jackson” were even being reported at times that preceded the singer’s death. For instance, during archival footage of the “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, one can see an odd, ghostly-looking face which appears in the crowd after the fight (see photo to the right). Mori of the Forgetomori site notes that “there are some things that interact with the image – passing both in front and behind the ‘face’ – which suggest that it was not (just) a bad editing job. And also suggest that perhaps it’s not a hoax, but pareidolia,” which describes “a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant.” Images of animals, faces in clouds, and the “man in the moon” are all examples of pareidolia… does this ghostly face represent the same, or is it merely another face in the crowd, strangely illuminated, and perhaps reflecting light off of a pair of glasses to create the odd, luminous appearance of the eyes?

Jackson’s life was peppered with his interests in ghosts and the paranormal. Perhaps the most obvious example would be the album Thriller, as well as the respective imagery that surrounded it. However, again in 1997 Jackson starred in the short film Ghosts, which detailed the story of “a scary Maestro” with supernatural powers. Featuring a series of dance routines performed by Jackson and his “family” of ghouls, the film’s sound track was borrowed entirely from Michael Jackson’s HIStory and Blood on the Dance Floor albums. However, outside the realm of spirits and specters depicted in Jackson’s videos, Jacko had a variety of odd connections with paranormalia in very real ways. For instance, Jackson was famously associated with psychic Uri Geller, having stood as best-man in the re-affirmation of Geller’s marriage vows with his wife in March of 2001. Geller, also a defender of Jackson’s stances regarding his involvement with minors, claimed he hypnotized Jackson the same year “to help cure an urge for peanut butter.” While under hypnosis, Geller says he “acted somewhat un-ethically” by asking the singer about his alleged sexual molestation of children. “He answered me under deep hypnosis that he had never touched a child in a sexual way,” Geller told CBS News. “He said – and here I’m using his exact words – ‘My relations with children are very beautiful.’ I’m a good hypnotist, and I know who is trying to mislead me. I can see straight into the subject’s eyes … [Jackson] didn’t fool me, I’m absolutely sure of it.”

Stephen Wagner of the Paranormal About.com points out that Jackson was also friends with Jacqueline Stallone, mother of actor Sylvester Stallone and self-proclaimed psychic who reads the future by looking at people’s bare backsides (EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m being completely serious here, folks. On one occasion several years ago, I had scheduled Stallone for an interview on Joshua P. Warren’s radio program Speaking of Strange, but was unable to reach her after calling the hotel in France where she was staying, and being told in broken English that “Miss Stallone will not be taking any calls this evening.” Joshua had hoped to email her a photo of his rump, from which she claimed she might be able to read his future… you can learn more about Stallone and her practice of the art of “rumpology” by clicking here). In November, 2003, Stallone told the MSNBC source The Scoop that Jackson would be found innocent. “He is totally innocent. I got a flash. You’re going to find out that this is the biggest frame up that ever happened. People say his career is over. They’re wrong. He’s going to come out of this stronger than ever. This all came to me like a lightning bolt.”

In addition to having made bids in an attempt to purchase a “ghost in a bottle” in 2004, Jackson himself claimed to have communicated with the spirit of flamboyant pianist Liberace several times. Jackson supposedly had a private mirror-filled room (perhaps similar to a psychomanteum setup?) where he communed with Liberace. “That’s where I talk to Lee,” Jackson said. “His is the voice I hear in there. I feel his presence so very close to me. [He] is like my guardian angel. He’s even given me permission to record his theme song ‘I’ll Be Seeing You’.” Indeed, if Jackson was communicating with spirits himself, it would be no surprise if he carried his fascination with spirits with him in the afterlife, providing a unique reversal of roles where Jackson now may be attempting to communicate with the land of the living from the other side. Are these indeed instances where Jackson could have experienced psychic phenomenon himself, and furthermore, could the strange “apparition” at Neverland ranch actually be the disembodied ghost of the famous singer? Who knows… in the meantime, I am particularly fascinated by Jackson’s alleged communications with Liberace, for if indeed this occurred in any capacity, it may be very similar to the aforementioned psychological phenomenon known as the psychomanteum, directly related to the ancient art of mirror gazing. Indeed, there may be more to the life (and afterlife) of Michael Jackson than any of us might have realized.