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�'s Reviews > Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death
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by
** spoiler alert **
Note: I am not American so I don’t know William James or his brother, Henry James, at all.
If part of the motivation for this book was to show that a science writer can write sympathetically about spiritualism and psychical research, then tick that off. However, no matter how sympathetic the writing (or maybe because of it?), I’m not sure what to make of this book.
Is it just a historical account of spiritualism in the 19th to 20th century? Because then I feel like its ending lacks something like “here we are today.� Blum had a postscript in “The Poison Squad� that related Harvey Wiley’s fight to the social and political challenges faced in the US today, so why not the same for this one?
Or is it about William James? But despite the title being “Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death�, William James only periodically comes into the story, and a large bulk of his appearance is at the end of the book. As the large cast of characters came and left on the pages, I kept wondering when William James was going to make his dazzling debut and push the boundaries of psychical research.
Unlike in “The Poisoner’s Handbook� or “The Poison Squad�, William James doesn’t seem like much of a main character, so I’m not sure that drawing my attention to him had any positive impact on the story. I remember Gurney, Hodgson and Nora Sidgwick much more than I remember William James.
But maybe it’s meant to get you to question your stance on spiritualism/psychical research by presenting cases like Eusapia Palladino and Leonora Piper? But while I was interested in their stories, I don’t think there was ever properly and data presented that would kind of show how odd or unusual their guesses or powers were. I’m not convinced that there was anything spiritual or supernatural about Palladino and Piper’s stories. But, I would have liked to have read some proposals, or conjectures, on how they could have done what they did.
I don’t regret reading the book, but at the same time, I wish I could have left the book with a stronger image of what it was meant to be about.
If part of the motivation for this book was to show that a science writer can write sympathetically about spiritualism and psychical research, then tick that off. However, no matter how sympathetic the writing (or maybe because of it?), I’m not sure what to make of this book.
Is it just a historical account of spiritualism in the 19th to 20th century? Because then I feel like its ending lacks something like “here we are today.� Blum had a postscript in “The Poison Squad� that related Harvey Wiley’s fight to the social and political challenges faced in the US today, so why not the same for this one?
Or is it about William James? But despite the title being “Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death�, William James only periodically comes into the story, and a large bulk of his appearance is at the end of the book. As the large cast of characters came and left on the pages, I kept wondering when William James was going to make his dazzling debut and push the boundaries of psychical research.
Unlike in “The Poisoner’s Handbook� or “The Poison Squad�, William James doesn’t seem like much of a main character, so I’m not sure that drawing my attention to him had any positive impact on the story. I remember Gurney, Hodgson and Nora Sidgwick much more than I remember William James.
But maybe it’s meant to get you to question your stance on spiritualism/psychical research by presenting cases like Eusapia Palladino and Leonora Piper? But while I was interested in their stories, I don’t think there was ever properly and data presented that would kind of show how odd or unusual their guesses or powers were. I’m not convinced that there was anything spiritual or supernatural about Palladino and Piper’s stories. But, I would have liked to have read some proposals, or conjectures, on how they could have done what they did.
I don’t regret reading the book, but at the same time, I wish I could have left the book with a stronger image of what it was meant to be about.
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