Book Review: Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side

I'm still at work, but since I'm stuck taking a lunch and have no food with me, I figured the most productive thing I could do was blog.  Tomorrow is going to be either a really short day (as in I'll sleep through most of it), or a really L O N G day (as in I'll get no sleep and feel like the day is just dragging and be ohnery...).


Source: Amazon.com



Ghosts Among Us: Uncovering the Truth About the Other Side, by James Van Praagh

I ain’t afraid ‘a no ghost!  I had to throw in something Ghostbuster-related somewhere in this review, so I decided to get it out of the way right off the bat.

I’m going to make another attempt to be brief here, and in this instance I hope to succeed.  Ghosts Among Us really didn’t merit a long review, in my opinion.  I’m sorry to be a downer - Mr. Van Praagh would probably accuse me of having “negative spiritual energy” - but I couldn’t really get into the full spirit of this book (pun intended).  Maybe it had to do with my expectations going in.  No, I didn’t realistically expect a book full of ghouls, zombies and the undead to delight and otherwise tickle my funny bone, but I did expect more interesting tales of experiences from people who have had ghostly encounters.  Did I get that?  Yes, but not to my satisfaction in the majority of cases.  Mostly it was one letdown after another.  Too many touchy-feely ghosts here.

 

Let me explain.  Ghosts Among Us is written partly as a narrative of various experiences that the author has had in a lifetime spent working with so-called “spirits who have passed over,” or in other words, the dead who aren’t among us any longer, or at least not very much.  He clearly says that he doesn’t work with “Earthbound spirits” whenever possible.  A pity.  They sounded like the more fun group here.  



James Van Praagh
Source: NNDB.com

The rest of the book, or at least a third to half of it, is made up of the author’s take on all sorts of spiritual things, of a religious and mystical and what-have-you nature.  And lots of what I am sure are practical bits of advice for those who follow his line of reasoning.  Me personally, I don’t.  Nothing personal, but it seemed to me that he took all kinds of “feel good” philosophy and is doing conferences and selling books that spew that philosophy to people who are looking for something to cling to.  That is the harsh way of putting it, I guess.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I only disagreed strongly with a few things he purported, such as chakras and reincarnation (not called “reincarnation” specifically, but alluded to as that) and... well I skipped about 20 minutes of the audiobook when he started talking about auras near the end.  I did agree in principal with many things he said, as they harmonize with my personal belief system, but much of it just didn't jibe, or was close but slightly tweaked versus my own spiritual interpretations.

I suppose as an analogy, I could say that it’s like a Catholic and a Lutheran having a discussion on religion.  As I am neither, I can be justly accused of dipping my toes in water that I know nothing about.  But bear with me here.  Both sides can agree on basic Christianity, and both sides can agree on certain aspects of the overall principles of that Christianity.  However, some things they will not see eye-to-eye on, and might even come away thinking the other person is a well meaning fool.  This is my feeling toward Mr. Praagh’s philosophy.  We could get along cordially enough if we had to, but I’d never be a convert.

On the other hand, the book’s contents did not espouse anything that I would consider specifically bad.  Just misguided at worst, I guess.  So if someone was searching for something to bring them light, I’d suppose that what Van Praagh covers in the way of philosophy is not bad.  Just not for me.



Jennifer Love Hewitt: "Are you a ghost, little boy?! 
Because if you are, you have to tell me. 
Come on, speak up, we haven't got all night!" 
Boyfriend (?) character: "My agent told me not to do this show. 
Why didn't I listen?"
Source: Cybermage.se

 As for the ghosts in the book, if you’ve seen an episode of that TV show The Ghost Whisperer, you’ve got the idea down.  Minus the soap opera nature of the show, from what little I’ve seen of it.  Van Praagh is the head consultant behind the series, so what you see there fits well with what he says in the book.  Take my advice and save yourself the trouble of reading this book.  Instead, just watch a re-run of that show.  You’ll get 75 to 80% of the message without having to pay good money or spend too much effort in the process.

Fingers crossed that Mary Roach’s book, Spook, is more in the way of what I was looking for.  If a book about ghoulies and ghosties isn’t going to be exciting (Ghosts Among Us, I’m looking at you here), at least let it be scientific.  I’ll get Spook read one of these days and let you know how it turns out.  In the meantime, I should read something exciting and ever-so-slightly titillating to get my juices going again.  I’ve had enough of kill-joy, “maybe this is the time when the ghost’s face melts off in mid conversation and scares the guy half out of his wits”-type moments to last me a week at least...  Ugh.


As a bit of a post-script to this entry, it may come as a surprise to some and as no surprise to others (those who follow Mr. Van Praagh's philosophy that ghosts feed on both negative energy and like to play tricks with electronic equuipment), that my trusty MP3 player kicked the proverbial bucket right after I finished writing up the draft of this review.  Spooky?  Coincindence?  International conspiracy?  You pick.


The parting comment:

Source: Picable.com

Michael Jackson!?  Is that you?  Are you endorsing this brand of car from beyond the grave?