Ghostly, phantom-like, or having the insubstantial, fleeting quality of a ghost or phantom.
Derived from fantasm plus the adjectival suffix -al. This adjective directly describes something as having fantasm-like qualities—unreal, ghostly, or existing more in imagination than in reality.
The word 'fantasmal' perfectly captures what scientists call 'sleep paralysis hallucinations'—people report seeing ghostly figures, but their brains are actually creating these fantasmal images while their muscles are temporarily unable to move.
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