Spectral Evidence

 

“Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to them witness in a dream at the time the accused person’s physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the courts during the Salem Witch Trials. The evidence was accepted on the basis that the devil and his minions were powerful enough to send their spirits, or specters, to pure, religious people in order to lead them astray. In spectral evidence, the admission of victims’ conjectures is governed only by the limits of their fears and imaginations.  Specters could be seen by those tormented but be invisible to others.

 

Spectral evidence was testimony in which witnesses claimed that the accused appeared to them and did them harm in a dream or a vision. Contemporary witch lore held that witches could project themselves spiritually, either directly or with the aid of Satan, in order to harm their victims from afar.

Spectral evidence is a form of legal evidence based upon the testimony of those who claim to have experienced visions. Such testimony was frequently given during the witch trials of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. The alleged victims would claim to have been tormented by specters invisible to others. This was taken as evidence that the accused witches, and or devils or demons that assumed appearance, were actively tormenting the victims. This testimony was virtually impossible to refute.