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Tales of mortals seduced by ghosts or other shadowy spirits reflect the allure of forbidden love and the terrible grip of the past. From the "woman in white" of English folklore, who lures travelers to their doom, to the Greek eidolons made of cloud sent to seduce humans, from Japanese yūrei who return from death to enchant or avenge to the nightmare-riding succubus that ravished sleeping monks in the Middle Ages, the phantom lover symbolizes irresistible desire and existential threat, manifesting in altered states of consciousness and as the result of pathological grief or stifled passions. This talk will explore these spectral figures, and lead us to reflect on timeless anxieties about connection, memory, and the fragile line between the real and the unreal, the mental and the material.