Ghost Hunters: A Guide to Investigating the Paranormal

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I didn't know before I read the book that Borley Rectory had existed and that Harry Price was a real person. Or rather I have a vague feeling that I have known and forgotten about it and it hit me when I looked up the place and the man himself on the net during the time I read the book. Strange how the mind can forget things.

I read the kindle version and it was peppered with typos. Also the 'continuity' was often incorrect. The whole book is badly in need of a decent editor to get rid of these numerous amateur errors and problems, and give it a good tidy up. The "ghost" was slightly interesting, at least, but she wasn't nearly strong enough to carry the rest of the tale, or possibly, the tale would have been served a great deal more by glossing the early debunking stuff and focusing on the manor entirely. Furthermore, I think my biggest disappointment with the book was the fact that I worked out the link between the prologue and the epilogue before I’d even started the first chapter, due to that I was somewhat disappointed come the end (although the ending itself was great within its own right, being a perfect ending to the book). As usual, I'm left disappointed and wondering whether it's just me...I struggled to keep reading this until I got to 60% and then I thought, nah, life's just too short. This is basically a relatively simple story spun out and spun out and spun out and spun out and (are you tired of reading this yet?) spun out and spun out and (seriously, giving up yet?) spun out and... This is historical fiction, a well researched story. Its focus are Borley Rectory, allegedly the most haunted house in England, Harry Price and his fictional assistant Sarah Grey.I wanted to give this book 3.5 out of 5, because 3 seems miserly considering I did enjoy most of it, but I'm not quite at 4. It has some printing mistakes, missing letters, mis-spellings etc, which I mention for those of the grammatically pedantic persuasion, but this didn't overly bother me. However, I did find it somewhat long-winded and ponderous at times. The fact I've been interested in Borley since I was a child meant I ploughed through the first section where Sarah meets Harry and (eventually) becomes his secretary, but I really, really wanted them to get to the damn haunted house :). And when they got there, I was a bit disappointed that the experience wasn't more meaty. This book is much more sympathetic to spiritualists and spiritualism than I would have thought likely. If I have one prejudice it is that this stuff does not deserve anything more than laughter. The Hauntings - Taking facts and information from the original investigation worked well here, I mean, who doesn't want to read about a ghosty nun staring at you through windows while taking jolly walks across the garden?

Sarah's father actually got killed during the war, and you find out at a later stage in the book how and why he died.Guaranteed to make you think and think again about whether or not you will accept the concept of "something else" out there, that we cannot measure or prove the existence of given our tools today. It turns out that this is Neil Spring's first published novel. It turns out he's working for John Lewis (blame Goodreads; it's not stalking - I promise, Your Honour), it also turns out that this novel is one of the best ghost stories, historical novels or gothic novels that I have read in years. Bravo, that man. Wow. Seriously, damn (said in an American accent).

Fascinating and a bit heart-wrenching, pioneering psychologist William James and many other well-respected scientists and famous people of the day suggested that psychic phenomena not be completely dismissed without a modicum of inquiry. Formed by journalist Edmund Rogers and physicist William Barrett, the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) attempted a scientific assessment of spirituality and the persistence of the soul after death. Eventually splitting into British and American branches, the SPR performed research into psychic phenomena while concurrently exposing frauds and charlatans. It surprised and chilled me how much evidence the Society was able to gather to support the notion of life after death, primarily via the medium Leonora Piper. Their round-robin experiment with several psychic mediums was clever and rather convincing, particularly the spillover to Alice MacDonald Fleming (Alice "Trix" Kipling), sister of Rudyard Kipling, who described the rooms and other elements that had been requested by investigators with no knowledge of their quest. In all, it was frustrating to see this group of learned men and women consistently run up against vicious criticisms from the rest of the scientific community, who refused to participate or even entertain the notion that the work that they were doing had merit. I sincerely wish that some group of researchers had continued this work, which sadly lost steam after most of the main investigators, particularly Hodgson and James passed on. My personal feelings on the subject accord with those of James; I don't necessarily believe in life after death or spirit communication, but I have not ruled out such things, because there are some situations that current science cannot explain fully. Everything about this story is enchanting. Not in a fairy-tale kinda way, but a ghostly kinda way, if you know what I mean. I really, really enjoyed The Ghost Hunters. I, like many others out there, find the paranormal mysterious and I've always enjoyed reading stories, seeing pictures of haunted houses and "apparitions". What's included in the book is exceptionally mystifying; maps of the actual Borley Rectory, illustrations of the house and newspaper clippings. It's terrifying yet entertaining and I just couldn't put this one down. There's something about this book... I can't put my finger on it, but there's definitely something different about it. And personally, I LOVE different. There's nothing better than it. The books only diverge at this point. Those in favour focus on the ‘successful’ accounts and say something like, “Although we can never really know, some doubt must always be part of the scientific method and …”

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In her groundbreaking book, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Deborah Blum has masterfully retold the story of the birth of spiritualism and the scientific pursuit of “psychical research.” In the late nineteenth century, William James, renowned philosopher and psychologist, and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. Deborah Blum artfully retells this story. Along with Raymond Moody’s The Last Laugh, this book should be required reading for any aspiring investigator of the paranormal. Basic premise is girl goes to work for parapsychology professor in the late 1920s, early 1930s. He's trying to prove it's all bunk. She's not sure and is in love with him. And indeed, I found it very hard to keep going with this book, all the way through the first two thirds. I didn't believe the characters, I kept tripping over the writing, and not much happened. When all is said and done, Harry Price turns out to be a character loaded with irony, and the author sets things up so that it isn't up to the last that we discover exactly what that irony entails. The "secret" Sarah carries around with her isn't so earth shattering when revealed, but even with this little bit of drama (a tad bit overdone, imho), she is also an interesting person both with and without Harry Price. There are many side characters who also come to life here -- most notably, the tenants of Borley Rectory, past and present. What the SPR researchers sought to do was apply scientific methods of research to psychical phenomena; they questioned whether there could be communication with the dead, either through physical manifestations (ghosts, rapping) or verbal ones (automatic writing, trance mediumship). In the late 19th century, Spiritualism was a growing movement, and seances were popular, particularly among those who had lost loved ones in the not long past American Civil War. While most scientists scoffed at the idea of "talking to the dead," this small group of researchers chose to look at the problem scientifically.