Ghost Hunters: A Guide to Investigating the Paranormal

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Blum was very adept at laying bare long forgotten antidotes of history. In Ghost Hunters, she approaches her brilliant and influential subjects as they were–human beings who experimented with narcotics, believed they had attained enlightenment under the influence of nitrous oxide, fell in love with their test subjects, and traveled to other continents to interview and test mediums and self-professed psychics. She weaves a detailed picture of a research field under siege by fellow scientists, journalists, and subjected to unending embarrassment caused by fraud and dubious conclusions at a time when England was ground zero in the battle between science and faith. Blum counters this positive portrait of a remarkable medium with the more ambiguous and disturbing portrayal of Eusapia Palladino, a rough-around-the-edges Italian medium who was often caught "cheating" during her seances, but also seemed to manifest some genuinely puzzling phenomena (including the first reported instance of "ectoplasm"). The two mediums similar and yet, in many ways, contrasting reputations and fates and Blum skillfully uses these two women as a means to structure the second half of her study. I have to admit this book excited my interests in the studies performed by the Society for Psychical Research (The SPR’s former presidents’ list reads like the Who’s Who in Science). One reason may have been my enormous respect for the works of the father of American psychology William James who presided over the SPR from 1894 to 1895.

The Ghost Hunters is a fictional memoir of Sarah Grey, assistant to one of the most renowned ghost hunters in all of England, Harry Price. Sarah began working as a model, but changed careers to become a secretary for Mr. Price. There was a period of time within the book which I questioned whether my idea was wrong yet that second guessing didn’t last long and my assumption was proven correct only a short while later. I think I would have been much happier had more effort been put in for the link not to be made quite so obvious, for more second guessing to be involved. I love the Victorian period. It was a time of great invention and creativity. I've always loved stories about the paranormal so I was sold on this book when I read the blurb. If you're interested in spirits and mediums this is a must read. Well written and researched Blum looks at the history of the Society of Psychical Research and its key membership. Through their personal stories and obsessions there are many questions raised. Through hundreds of testings of people claiming to have a link to spirit guides or who put on spirit shows, they usually proved them to be fraudulent. Moving tables and ghostly “apparitions” were easy to figure out. Still they searched for proof of real spirits. Spiritualism was quite popular at the time, yet the scientific community gave the researchers little to no support. I enjoyed the read despite so-called historical inaccuracies. Anachronistic as some elements may have been, it is for the author to have some poetic license and as much of the text is from Sarah Grey's manuscript written decades after some of the events in the story, it for sure could easily be explained away on this basis.So where the characters exciting and complicated and delightful? Well... they were serviceable. I wish that I actually liked Henry more or perhaps hated him more. I wanted to Feel something more. Did I want to see his downfall something fierce? Nah. Did I fear for his bitter end? Nah. Unfortunately, the tale was a bit on the dull side. From a pure story view, there's absolutely nothing here that hasn't been seen a hundred times when it comes to the intrepid scientific debunker of mystical charlatans or the expected twists that come with tales of this nature. "Is it real or is it hoax?" So often, readers of this kind of trope rely on the strength of the characters and the excitement of the plot to carry us along. While the book was dry in places due to the wealth of factual information provided, I found myself unable to put it down. Blum does her best to make this subject interesting. Alas, this is a dry read. Why? Because William James and his cohorts make for an interesting albeit dry read. Also, this book is rather ambitious with quite the scope. Overall this was a really enjoyable novel, that was well thought out, and well detailed with facts from the original case. If you're looking for a good ghost story you can't really go wrong with this one. Just make sure you're willing to put in the time, and can handle a maybe (too) large word count.

This seems to illustrate why mediums can sometimes be accurate and other times so completely wrong. If the medium does not have knowledge of a particular subject matter or their brain works in a different way to that of the spirit, it's difficult for the message to be sent accurately. As they repeatedly test remarkable mediums and hear overwhelming reports of ghostly warnings of loved one's deaths, these scientists become more convinced than ever that in the vast ocean of fakers, some events truly are supernatural in origin. But they face growing suspicion and ridicule from their fellow scientists and anger from spiritualists who find those they've put on pedestals tumbling down one after another. The plot is based on a true story, that of Borley Rectory, the alleged 'most haunted house in England', and its investigation by paranormal researcher Harry Price. Complete with academic-style, apparently factual footnotes, it's obviously been painstakingly well-researched, to the point that most of it might read like non-fiction were the story not told from the viewpoint of a fictional character - Price's secretary and research assistant, Sarah Grey. Grey's account makes up the majority of the book, and it is framed by the tale of a psychologist who, in the 1970s, has discovered it in Price's decaying library of oddities. What? People are disappointing? They're flawed and given to delusions no matter where you look? Noooo... it can't be! *sigh*That gives me a dilemma in rating the book - sometimes I find that the hardest part of a review. if I had to judge the first part on its own, I would award it no more than two stars. For the ending, I'd give four. So overall - three stars.

This book is an imaginative account of the haunting of Borley Rectory, apparently "the most haunted house in England" and the investigation of it by ghost hunter, showman, charlatan - make up your own mind which - Harry Price. Set between the 1920s and the 40s, it takes us to a world where the relatives of those who fell in the First World War are exploited by false(?) mediums. The mediums who are in turn turn hunted down by the indefatigable Price. But Price has a problem. He is being supported and his "laboratory" accommodated by the Spiritualist movement, whose pet mediums he keeps debunking. So it may seem very convenient when an opportunity arises to investigate a serious haunting. Will Price, and his assistant, Sarah Grey, encounter something much darker and much nastier than they expect? While there were many fake mediums during the Victorian period, there were some that could not disproved. The scientists researching mediums faced a quandary, at what point was there irrefutable proof as to life after death? And how could life after death be proven when the phenomena of mediums was so unreliable? Tests could not be replicated even with mediums who had proven to be accurate. The scientists undertaking this research developed many thesis that make for fascinating reading and provide food for thought. The book focuses on the medium Leonora Piper and her work with the Society of Psychical research. There were two things that I found most fascinating about this book. Sarah Grey has returned to England after a brief time as a model in Paris. She is looking for a new job, but she never expected to be offered and accepting a job as a personal assistant to Harry Price, the infamous ghost hunter. Harry has devoted himself to expose mediums and false hauntings. And, despite being temperamental and neurotic is he also very charming and Sarah can't help but be drawn to him. One of the most puzzling cases for them will be Borley Rectory. Is the place really haunted or are the rumors about it exaggerated? This novel merges fact and fiction in an absorbing and evocative ghost story. Harry Price (1881-1948) was a real psychic researcher; a sceptic renowned for exposing fake spiritualists and best known for his investigation into Borley Rectory, called ‘the most haunted house in England.” In this book, an academic is given a manuscript by Miss Sarah Grey, which tells the story of Price’s investigation into Borley Rectory. Miss Grey was a young woman whose father had died in the first world war and who lived with her mother. Like many of her generation, her mother looked for answers in spiritualism, which flourished after the war, capitalising on grief. Sarah and her mother attend a meeting with Mr Price, after which she is fascinated by both him and his work. Before long, she has become his assistant and her life is changed forever. 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.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. My major problem with the book is the conclusion. It doesn't really conclude! As the original scientists in William James circle die off, the book simply draws to a close. But the real excitement of the book is their research, and the questions which it poses -- which have yet to be satisfied. Thus, you find yourself a bit at a loss, without a nice feeling of "fini" at the end of the book. This book explains so much about the very real war between religious thought, scientific process, and those of us; who in the famous words of Rodney King ask plainitively, "Can't we all just get along?". THE GHOST HUNTERS, by Neil Spring is a fantastic piece of historical-fiction based on the real case of the reputed haunted Borley Rectory. Harry Price sets out to debunk (where possible) the existence of supernatural phenomenon, and attempts to find proof of human manipulations. In this story, we are introduced to the fictional character of Sarah Grey, who becomes Mr. Price's assistant on these journeys, and other efforts to the same end. Blum does not outright state it, but implies that these investigations were most likely abandoned because they were extremely difficult, and also because science itself was becoming increasingly pedantic and reductionist. The final chapter citing Thomas Edison's evaluation of James's interest in psychic phenomena was both telling and sad. He claims that we human beings are essentially machines and that when our gears wear out, only a husk remains. This kind of thinking led to erroneous "scientific" advancements such as counting calories (where all calories are considered equally valid fuel) - wrong; the "stress" theory of ulcers (because no bacterium can possibly survive in an environment as acidic as the human stomach, one of the lowest pH values to be found in nature) - wrong; that baby formula, scientifically created from correct chemical nutrients, is better than breast milk - wrong.