People have mixed opinions about ghosts. Some only think of them as the stuff of movies and books, while others believe they can feel them, have seen them, and that they need to be recognized as real, not imaginary. Now, a process Einstein famously referred to as “spooky” is allowing scientists to catch “ghosts” on film for the first time thanks to the use of quantum cameras. But let’s be clear: These figures aren’t wandering souls or lingering ancestors. Rather, they are the images of objects from photons that never even experienced the objects pictured.

“For example, it is possible to prepare two particles in a single quantum state such that when one is observed to be spin-up, the other one will always be observed to be spin-down and vice versa, this despite the fact that it is impossible to predict, according to quantum mechanics, which set of measurements will be observed,” notes Science Daily.

Quantum cameras snap ghost images by using two separate laser beams with their photons entangled. Just one beam witnesses the object pictured, yet the image can still be created no matter which beam hits the camera.

These cat cutout pictures were created from light particles that never saw the shape.

“What they’ve done is a very clever trick. In some ways it is magical,” noted quantum optics expert Paul Lett of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “There is not new physics here, though, but a neat demonstration of physics.”

“This is a long-standing, really neat experimental idea,” said Lett. “Now we have to see whether or not it will lead to something practical, or will remain just a clever demonstration of quantum mechanics.”