More than five million people have viewed video clips posted on the video sharing website YouTube that purport to show the ghost of dead 80s pop icon Michael Jackson.

In one video clip taken from a CNN “Inside Neverland” special on the Larry King Live show, a ghostly apparition appears to cross in front of a fireplace as the camera is pointed down a corridor into the dead entertainers bedroom.

In another video clip from NBCs Today Show, an image with the appearance of the dead singers head and face can be seen looking out from the garden on the left-side of the head of Jermaine Jackson while he is being interviewed by Matt Lauer on July 3, 2009.

In the Today Show clip the apparition first appears at 2:45 minutes into the clip and again at the 2:51, 3:02, 3:29 and 4:03 minute marks, but is gone at the 4:32 minute mark of the interview.

CNN followed up the original broadcast with an explanation claiming the apparition was a shadow of someone from outside the room but the Today Show offered no explanation for what people saw in its broadcast.

To the legions of Jackson fans around the world the clips placed on YouTube are like a magnet to steel, with scores of people swearing the apparitions are Jackson’s ghost. Many other have left comments debunking the apparitions as mere optical illusions.

Either way, just as Jackson’s recording have gained a new lease of life on the charts around the world following his death, these video clips are proving that Jackson is just as controversial in death as he was in life.

Jackson will be buried in a private ceremony attended by only family and close friends at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills at 8am today, July 7, 2009, before his coffin is transported to the Staples Centre for the entertainers memorial service.