12 Jun People Who Believe They Have Sex with Ghosts
As with the case of Dr. Mitchell’s research on reticular hominoids being “too weird” for transpersonal psychology, the widely reported phenomena of people having sex with ghosts appears to be too weird for even that great chronicler of the strange, the Fortean Times. Murdie (2015), in his article Ghost Watch, stated “Regarding a handful of ghost encounters claiming a sexual element I have heard personally, I unfortunately concluded that these came from attention-seeking individuals or arose with people who had undergone traumatic childhood experiences and abuse” (p. 12). The article continues documenting women who have reported such experiences in such a mocking and scornful tone that since the author is male and all the subjects female, one cannot help but call out sexism.
Jeffrey Kripal, the noted scholar of the history of religion, however, is not so disrespectful. In the 2017 film, Love and Saucers, he offers the irrefutable point that the whole of Christianity is based on the belief that the Virgin Mary had sex with a ghost, albeit a holy one. So, whether conscious of it or not, all Christians have gone along with the belief that sex with ghosts is a thing. Popular culture agrees that yes, it is a thing: celebrities who have come forward admitting to have had sex with ghosts include Bobby Brown, Lucy Liu, Anna Nicole Smith, Keisha, and Joyce Behar.
Ida Craddock (1857-1902) was an occult scholar, sex educator, and author. She spoke and counseled, advocated a sacred view of sex, and wrote extensively about sex with her disembodied spirit (ghost) husband who had died when he was 20. No less than Aleister Crowley, one of the 20th Century’s most prominent occultists, stated that Ida Craddock’s book, Heavenly Bridegrooms, was of incalculable value to every student of the occult.
The scientific term for the erotic love of ghosts is spectrophilia. More serious research needs to be done. What can be said at this point is that, as in many varieties of high strangeness experience, there are a plethora of reports of people having sex with ghosts that are not being taken seriously.
References
Chappell, V. (2010). Sexual outlaw, erotic mystic: The essential Ida Craddock. Weiser Books.
Mitchell, D.S.B. (in press) What goes bump in the psyche – Relict hominoids and reality
Murdie, A. (2015). Ghost watch. Fortean Times, 327 12-14
Ralston, M. (Producer), & Abrahams, D. (Director). (2017). Love and saucers. [Motion Picture] US: Independent.
Thompson, M. (2022, August 18). 7 Celebrities who claim they had sexual encounters with a ghost — Yes, an actual ghost. Buzzfeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/mychalthompson/celebrity-sexual-ghost-encounters
© 2025 Catherine Auman
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