Spectral Evidence / 幽灵证据

Spectral evidence / 幽灵证据 is the [[SalemWitchTrials|塞勒姆猎巫]] evidentiary failure foregrounded in 91.猎巫：塞勒姆1692，从癔症开始. In the episode’s account, courts allowed claims that accusers saw an accused person’s specter, or that an accused person invisibly harmed them, to count in the legal process.

The concept matters because it reverses Evidence Over Testimony. Instead of requiring independent corroboration for extraordinary claims, the procedure lets performance, vision, fear, and religious interpretation become evidence. That makes it a legal instance of Arbitrary Authority Procedure and a central accelerant inside Witch-Hunt Mechanism / 猎巫机制.

Key Claims

• Spectral evidence makes private perception publicly punishable.
• It is structurally hard to rebut because the accused cannot disprove another person’s claimed vision or invisible injury.
• Courtroom bodily performances become dangerous when interpreted as proof rather than as symptoms, suggestion, pressure, or staged behavior.
• The episode treats the later rejection of spectral evidence as one reason the trials could stop.
• As a broader warning, spectral evidence names any procedure that lets unfalsifiable invisible harm substitute for testable proof.

Connections

• Salem Witch Trials / 塞勒姆猎巫 - source case where the evidentiary rule becomes lethal.
• Witch-Hunt Mechanism / 猎巫机制 - escalation mechanism that spectral evidence feeds.
• Evidence Over Testimony, Observation Before Inference, and Scientific Skepticism - counter-standards.
• Political Show Trial and Arbitrary Authority Procedure - procedural settings where weak signs can be turned into official certainty.