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 there are 7
pieces of merchandise in this room
 there are 7 pages in this section--click HERE to go to next page |
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| The Enigma of
Borley Rectory, Ivan Banks, 1995, photos, line art, maps,
biblio, index, 288 pp $12.95 |
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| Borley, "The Most Haunted House in England," has
haunted me since I first read about it in my Golden Book Encyclopedia, so I awaited
this book with special excitement. I'm sorry to say that my hopes for the definitive book
on Borley have been dashed. This book was ten years in the making and it is a
useful compendium of information on Borley, both from a historical and psychical research
perspective, since it encorporates much from The End of Borley Rectory and The
Ghosts of Borley, now both out of print and very hard to find. As the editor notes:
"To some, the author's ideas and his spiritual interpretations may not easily be
acceptable, but for sheer tenacity, persistence and dedication, and for [producing] so
much fascinating new evidence...the author, I feel, is to be congratulated." BUT the book's dense, clause-ridden prose, unsupported
assertions, appalling logic, and over-reliance on planchette material make it a real
disappointment. Banks repeatedly quotes Harry Price's warning not to take planchette
material as the literal truth without other evidence. Yet he consistently draws
conclusions from scripts of sittings where leading questions were asked or from sheer
gibberish. In one case, the spirit of "Katie" claimed to have been a maid at the
Rectory and died there as the result of a botched abortion at Easter, 1988.
"She" said she had been made pregnant by her employer Harry Bull. Katie Boreham
was a real person, although there is no evidence she was ever a maid at the Rectory, and
Banks produces her death certificate, which states that she died with her husband by her
side at Sudbury, not Borley. In a death-defying leap of logic, Banks concludes that there
was some kind of cover-up--that the place of death was changed on the certificate to avoid
a scandal. Excuse me while I hyperventilate....
There are some tempting nuggets of information here. The
excavation of the fabled tunnel, which has been only partially uncovered. The search for a
monastery at or near Borley. The investigation of the tangled affairs of Captain Gregson.
And Banks has done some useful work on the supposed Nun of Borley (to whom he irritatingly
refers as the Holy Sister). But, again, his starting points were the dubious seance
scripts, as well as a theory worthy of a romance novel that seems to have been conjured
out of sheer moonshine by one Mary Lycett of Surbiton. Personally I wonder if the ghost
really was a nun; the dress of an ordinary medieval wife or widow looked just like a
traditional nun's habit.
If you are a fan of Borley, you'll want to have this book, just for the
sake of completeness. It goes into microscopic and repetitive detail but, alas, throws no
real light upon the facts of the case. |
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| Familiar
Spirits: Sexual Hauntings Through the Ages, Colin Waters, 1993,
photos and line art, biblio., 174 pp. $16.95 HB |
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| Not quite as titillating as you might think, this book
could be titled, "The Naked and the Dead." Tales of ghostly rapists, panting
spirits, lewd goblins, incubi and succubi. Five nude ghosts dancing around Trafalgar
Square, a beautiful ghostly streetwalker who turned into a hideous hag, a pathetic
pregnant spirit of a murdered girl. |
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| Ghost Encounters. Finding Phantoms and Understanding
Them, Cassandra Eason, 1997, maps, useful addresses, index, 207 pp $12.95 |
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| Eason, author of Psychic Suburbia,
Psychic Families, and The Psychic Power
of Children, always has a very soothing, reassuring tone, which helps keep this
very diverse collection of subjects on track. She bounces back and forth between ley lines
and ghosts, advice on how to practice psychometry, the chakras, methods of opening
communication with a late loved one, urban ghosts, dreams of the dead, ghosts on the Isle
of Wight, legal wrangling over Chingle Hall, psychic protection, etc. Lots of
"how-to" lists. And loads of very interesting ghost stories to illustrate her
points. |
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| The Ghosthunter’s Guidebook: The Essential How-To Guide for
Conducting Paranormal Investigations, Troy Taylor, 209 pp, glossary, bibliography, $14.95 |
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| This book must have a fourth-dimensional
overpocket for all the immensely useful information Taylor has crammed into it! Everything
from the most sophisticated electronic equipment to rules for investigating hauntings to
how to research the history of a location. But wait! There’s more! How to photograph
ghosts. Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP). Where to look for ghosts. Questions for
Witnesses. And, of course, the different types of ghosts and hauntings. Taylor suggests a
new type: portal hauntings and makes a persuasive case for certain locations being
"doorways" to other worlds where spirits can come and go at will. I think
I’ll have my locks changed. A superb book for beginner or expert! |
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| The Ghost Hunter’s Handbook, A Field Guide to the Paranormal, Lori
Summers, 2002, 86 pp, approx. 4 ½ x 6”$7.99 |
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| This field guide to phantoms features a glossary of
paranormal terms, defines different types of ghosts: Mischief Makers, Avengers,
Message-bringers and Haunters, tells what to do if you encounter a ghost, ghost detection
methods, communicating with ghosts, a list of essential ghost hunting items, a notebook
section and an official Ghost Hunter’s ID card! Designed
for young people, this is a “visually noisy” book, with many different
type-faces, color-block sidebars, and video-game illustrations. Still, there’s useful
information here and this would make a perfect pumpkin-stuffer for Halloween! |
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| Ghost Hunting, Professional Haunted House Investigation, Bevy Jaegers (with Ray Jaegers), 1988, photos (sorry to
say, they don't reproduce very well), 56 pp $7.00 |
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| A basic,
modestly-produced guide to starting your own investigation group enhanced by fascinating
anecdotes from the Jaegers' own career. No fancy ghostbusting equipment is needed, just
common-sense (for instance, ask first, "Was the witness on any medication?") and
some psychic sensitivity, which the Jaegers believe can be taught. The tortured spirit
whose identity was only made clear by a few notes on a harmonica. An "imprint"
of a terrible hurricane felt by the Jaegers in a beachfront hotel. I'd like to see more
from this ghostbusting couple. |
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| Ghost Sightings, [Catalog of Ghost Sightings], Brian Innes, 1996, photos, line art, index, 160 pp $19.95
HB |
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| Big book, lots of pictures. This
oversize, lavishly illustrated coffee-table-size book takes a chronological and topical
approach to hauntings from the ghosts of the Battle of Marathon to Borley onward to the
Enfield poltergeist. It's a little slanted towards 18th-19th century British ghosts, but
there's something to please everyone among these 100 cases. Place, time, and reporter(s)
of apparitions are given as well as a balanced commentary on controversial cases. (The
section on Amityville, for example, first tells what the Lutzes claimed happened, then
debunks it.) There are also excellent updates on historic spots like Borley. Innes
includes a very wide range of different phenomena over 20 centuries including malign
ghosts, apparitions of the living, ghostly animals, poltergeists, and the facts behind
certain urban myths. |
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