Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death

by Deborah Blum

Penguin Press, N.Y., 2006, 370 pages, hardback, price $25.95

     As with UFOs, the scientific study of ghosts has a checkered past, a past this told in this fascinating book.  The author is a professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin.  It is surprising to learn that some of the leading scientists and scholars of the nineteenth century were involved in the serious study study of psychic phenomena and life after death.  They include William James the famous American psychologist, Alfred Russel Wallace the co-discoverer along with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution and even Mark Twain, the celebrated writer who believed he had a premonition of death from his brother.
     As with UFOs, many scientists decided to ignore the evidence for psychic phenomena and ridiculed the those who studied it.  James wrote (p.25) of the tactics of skeptics, "if you wish to get rid of mystery, to brand the narratives themselves as unworthy of trust".  This is what we see in Ufology when some claim the eyewitnesses are unreliable or at fault.  Wallace wrote of mysteries, "which science ignored because it could not explain" (p.40)  Twain wrote that paranormal events happened too often to be dismissed as mere coincidences "It is a chap and convenient way of disposing of a grave and puzzling mystery.  The fact is it does seem to happen too often to be an accident" (p.173).
     Many terms we take for granted originated with these 19th century ghost hunters.  They are telepathy, telekinesis, psychometry, ectoplasm and ouija board.  Ouija comes from the French and German words for "Yes".  Literally ouija means "yes, yes".
     This is a very well written, informative book.