A review by bclark8781
Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death by Deborah Blum

3.0

I don't quite know what to make of this book. Ms Blum includes episode after episode of seemingly supernatural happenings that, if described completely and accurately, seem like they couldn't be anything else but SOME sort of supernatural happenings, whether telepathy or actual communications with/from the dead. But she doesn't come to any firm conclusions, but really, how could she? So, in many ways this book doesn't really "go anywhere"; the events described early in the book are basically identical to those in later chapters. I wouldn't have read this had she not invoked William James in the title, and he really is the through-line of the narrative. Did this group of earnest "ghost hunters" (an unfortunate phrase in my opinion) really prove anything? No, but they certainly didn't disprove anything either. The world still simply doesn't know the answer to the question of life after death; if this book accomplishes anything it makes the case for (SOMEhow) scientifically studying the subject, but here in 2022 (or in 2006 when thus book was written) we don't seem to have any better idea of how to approach the subject than these folks did in 1906!
One thing that I think would have really helped (me, at least) would have been photos of some of the main characters. I don't know if Ms Blum was unable to find photos of many of these somewhat obscure turn-of-the-century figures, or if she felt they wouldn't add much to the reader's experience. I'd like to ask the author this.