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The Ghost Hunters

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The Victorian era was probably the high-point of belief in spiritualism - who doesn't picture all those fine gentleman and corseted ladies participating in seances, dabbling with Ouija boards, tilting tables and automatic writing? It's probably no coincidence that this peak in belief coincided with the rise of science as we understand it - perhaps this emerging insistence that the universe could be codified and classified and explained also gave rise to some kind of reaction against it, this belief that there were some things beyond explanation? 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.

UK Ghost Hunts paranormal and ghost hunting events from one of the most experienced ghost hunting groups around the UK And indeed, I found it very hard to keep going with this book, all the way through the first two thirds. I didn't believe the characters, I kept tripping over the writing, and not much happened.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. The second was an experiment conducted by Margaret Verrall a friend of Fred Myers. Verrall decided to prove if there was life after death by communicating with Myers. She decided on automatic writing, the phenomena of holding a pen and having a spirit take over and write messages. Over three months she set aside at least an hour every day and waited. After three months of waiting she started writing about other matters. Our paranormal investigations give you a unique opportunity to experience ghost hunting first hand whilst working alongside our experienced and professional team. 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. The ending was fantastic, very sad though because of all the things that happen there. There are also happy moments and moments that made me go HAHA! I really like how the author wrote this all and how it all came together. So proud of Greta as well!

This is historical fiction, a well researched story. Its focus are Borley Rectory, allegedly the most haunted house in England, Harry Price and his fictional assistant Sarah Grey. 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. This novel presents itself to you as an account written by one of the lead investigators during that time, and is treated very much like a diary written after the fact. The lead narrator is constantly foreboding events that have yet to happen, and adding suspense and build up throughout. All the while, keeping the reader semi-clueless about the whether or not the events that are unfolding are real.If you're a fan of spooky tales, of things that go bump in the night, of gothic fiction, detective stories, or hell, if you just fancy a good old yarn around a camp fire that will keep you wondering from start to finish, give this one a go. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a five from me, and it's found its way on to my favourite books shelf; I'm sure it will for you too. I was so absolutely hyped that Sam Copeland (and Sarah Horne) were collaborating on a new story again! This time ghosts and crazy plans! This review may be a bit chaotic, because BOY I got so many feels! Greta lives with her grandma, parents, younger brother, and a few ghosts. Her Mother is yoga obsessed and her father tries his hand on poetry. Younger brother is too young to talk and anyways he is always busy playing with lorries. Naturally, Grandma is Greta's best friend. But she talks to the ghost of grandpa and Greta's parents want her to send her to an old home. Greta also used to think that grandma is losing marbles until one day Greta was hit by a vehicle and after that accident now she can also see the ghosts. Her parents are more than sure that Grandma is a bad influence on their daughter.

I am very glad to be able to say, though, that the book did improve. As the story went on, it did become less of an account of "bumps in the night", flying bars of soap and heaving tables and turned into some much more subtle and chilling. It is actually difficult to say more without giving away some of the secrets of the book. But it is worth reading that first section for the sake of the ending. This book is much more sympathetic to spiritualists and spiritualism than I would have thought likely. If I have one prejudice it is that this stuff does not deserve anything more than laughter. I don't really know why this edition has been published, the original first coming to light in 1989. It wouldn't have been very interesting to the majority of thinking people then, even less now, and there is a 'dated' feeling (if it's possible to say so about 'ghosts') not only in the presentation but in the incidents it purports to present. Greta is very focused, on getting her ghostly/ghastly friends to scare her parents and prove that Grandma was in fact talking to Grandpa the ghost. Whether this is in fact true is another story 🤣 but the shenanigans are aplenty! 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.

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What the SPR researchers sought to do was apply scientific methods of research to psychical phenomena; they questioned whether there could be communication with the dead, either through physical manifestations (ghosts, rapping) or verbal ones (automatic writing, trance mediumship). In the late 19th century, Spiritualism was a growing movement, and seances were popular, particularly among those who had lost loved ones in the not long past American Civil War. While most scientists scoffed at the idea of "talking to the dead," this small group of researchers chose to look at the problem scientifically. Bigfoot, but not like you may think but a different angle and involving mind psychically manipulated. GHOST HUNTERS didn’t convince me that spirits don’t exist. It did put a spotlight on the beliefs at the time. Yup, he’s one of those, and it’s really funny how he is chronically unable to scare Greta and the balance of power is all wrong. 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.

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