Mirrors have had legends, lore, superstition and myths tied to them for pretty much as long as they have been around. The ancient Romans believed that they reflected a person’s soul and could bring great strife if they were misused, and indeed many other cultures have various negative, supernatural qualities attached to mirrors, such as they can suck out one’s soul, be portents of death, or offer glimpses into some other dimension. For instance, the Chinese once believed that what we saw in mirrors were other realms of existence. In many cultures, mirrors are used for communication with spirits, and it is thought they serve as portals or doorways to the spirit world, that they are some barrier between the world of the living and that of the dead, through that veil that separates us. Mirrors were even used in divination. For instance “catoptromancy” and “enoptromancy” are practices in which mirrors are used to capture the reflection of the moon for the purpose of seeing the future. It is perhaps this widespread belief that has led to the phenomenon of haunted mirrors, so common around the world that various disparate cultures follow the superstition of covering mirrors at certain times, in particular after a death, in order to prevent whatever is on the other side from peeking in or coming through, or even to stop a soul from becoming trapped within the mysterious mirror world. Mirrors are weird, and this is reflected in plenty of legends, lore, and urban legends, as well as actual alleged cases of haunted mirrors. Let’s take a look.