Goethe experimented with John Dee's curious method to observe astral objects and creatures by using certain pieces of glass from ancient church windows.

Goethe also discovered that it was possible to make the astral spectrum visible with the help of prisms filled with special fluids. Illuminating astral objects through a lens of meteorite glass could also improve the prisms effect. 

Goethe's theories were not new. Many of his discoveries are described in a number of ancient Roman and Greek sources. The Arab astronomer and physicist Abu 'Ali al-Hasan (965 - 1040) describes in his book Kitab al-Manazir how angels and gates to heaven can be discoverd by looking at them through spheres of glass filled with special fluids.

In The Necronomicon, mystic Ibn al-Rawandi (827-919) offers a number of formulas for such liquids. Egyptian priests of the Old Kingdom's 6th Dynasty used a so-called Eye of Anubis, a strange lens of glass, in various ceremonies and séances.

Goethe's great contribution in the exploration of the astral spectrum is that he for the first time combines ancient forbidden knowledge with modern science, and thereby achieved spectacular results. He also learned how different creatures and objects are visible in various parts of the astral spectrum.

In 1893 the Society for Psychical Research in London manufactures a number of "spectacles" based on Goethe's ideas. The glasses where mainly used by the society's so-called investigators in their investigations of unexplained phenomena, but some where lent to other occult researchers, among them the Hungarian archaeologist Aurel Stein.

Stein used the spectacles with great success during his third Central Asian Expedition 1913-16. During his ill-fated fourth expedition, however, he made such terrifying discoveries that the expedition had to be abandoned. Stains assistant Milton Bramlette survived, but never reveals what actually took place in the dark tomb in Kashgar.

"So traumatized was he by his experiences in China That, although his bibliography is quite extensive, he never once wrote about his Central Asian experience."

Shareen Brysac, Sir Aurel Stein's Fourth 'American' Expedition.

The circumstances surrounding Sir Aurel Stein's fourth expedition are still shrouded in mystery.

The Ghost goggles in Dr. Cagliostro's collection were found 1907 in the mysterious catacombs of Hal Saflieni Hypogeum in Malta. They probability originates from a lost investigator from the Society for Psychical Research who secretly travelled to Malta to explore Hal Saflieni's underground temples and tombs.

The chairman of the Society for Psychical Research, Gerald Balfour, accused the Jesuit priest Manuel Magri to be involved in the disappearance. Magri was at the time responsible for the excavation of Hal Saflieni. Manuel Magri however, dies under mysterious circumstances soon after the incident, and no formal investigation was ever done.

The goggles were donated to our collections in 1926 by Sir Themistocles Zammit. The glasses were carefully refurbished 1943 in connection with the Dr. Cagliostro's Cabinet of Curiosities' investigations of a series of mysterious events at The Castle of Läckö. From time to time they are still used today in our investigations of mysterious and unexplained phenomena.