Ghost Hunters

Kohi, Hai

Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, by Deborah Blum
The Penguin Press, NY, 2006
ISBN: 1-59420-090-4
321pp plus Notes, Sources, and Index - $25.95 hardcover

Just read Ghost Hunters by Deborah Blum, an account of the search for evidence of life after death at the turn of the last century. William James, the philosopher and psychologist, is a central figure, as are a host of other prominent Victorian scientists, writers, and experimenters on both sides of the Atlantic.

What is stingingly obvious is how bigoted and closed-minded the science establishment has been from the start against even the search for spiritual evidence, let alone the analyzing of it or the conclusions it forces. We see it still. And knowing that it has remained a howling gaffe in science to pursue paranormal evidence makes the account that much more poignant. These very intelligent, very fair men and women stood up for what was right in the face of strident criticism that destroyed careers and, sadly, continues to do so.

The book is slender but dense. It is well-written, vivid, and full of personal detail. One learns much about the times and circumstances of those brave people who pioneered parapsychology. We see so many instances of elusive results and suggestive hints being decried, ignored, and ridiculed by those pleased to call themselves scientific. Some of these scoffers sneered proudly even as they refused to read the reports, let alone assess the experiments’ protocols or the evidence.

We begin to understand how unsure genuine science is to this day. Far from the body of absolute dogma it pretends to be, science is in fact selective and biased, a thuggery more than an academy. And when science is a bully, then the few who persevere in the face of withering hostility become heroic.

This is not a book for true believers of any stripe. Those convinced of either a religious doctrine or personal system aren’t likely to find confirmation. Anyone seeking answers will find frustration and open-ended arguments that never resolve. Rather than be upset, they are advised to avoid this book.

If one prefers questions to answers, and if one wishes to know how attempts to understand what, if anything, lies beyond, then read Ms. Blum's excellent book. You'll learn how science fails miserably at many things human, even as it shoulders its way into the inhuman with unnerving success and ability. You'll also see that some of the very best minds a century ago concluded that there was something in all the seances, table-tippings, and ectoplasmic pokes and prods.

William James, his wife Alice, and his brother, novelist Henry, along with members of the British and American Societies for Psychical Research, were convinced telepathy had been established as fact. When it came to surviving the body’s death, and communicating between the living and the disembodied, agreement was not so readily found.

One fascinating experiment involved women in England, the United States, and India simultaneously using automatic writing ostensibly to communicate with a recently-deceased Society member. Like a jigsaw puzzle, coherent messages and direct, specific answers to questions posed to one or another medium came through. It took weeks, months, but when it was all assembled, the conversation was convincing to those conducting it; they seemed to be talking with someone they knew well, who had died.

This reminded me of John G. Fuller’s excellent book, The Airmen Who Would Not Die, in which a series of unconnected spirit communications among many people over a course of years revealed what had happened to a group of airmen who had vanished over the Atlantic during the war. It was later confirmed, and the communications remain one of the most convincing cases of spirit survival of bodily death ever recorded. I had not known there were other such cases and was glad to read of another.

Ghost Hunters is excellent for anyone thoughtful about what comes after all this, if anything. Many suggestive pieces of evidence conclude something is there for us after all.

Not as fun as Will Shorr Vs. The Supernatural, but much more sober and systematic an account by a world-class science writer, this book is recommended.

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