Phantom Encounters

Mysteries of the Unknown

by Time-Life Books (Editor), Janet P. Cave, Laura Foreman

The editors of Time-Life Books have produced another exciting Mysteries of the Unknown. Phantom Encounters are brought to you in extraordinary detail through vivid photography and engaging, informative text.

Genres: Paranormal, Nonfiction, Supernatural, Occult, Reference, Spirituality, Ghosts

144 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[P.S. Winn]

The photography in this book is amazing and the text takes readers down a strange path. I love that the Time-Life people included so many different places and times in this collection. Those strange encounters have been a round for a long time.

[Brian Baker]

It's an invaluable read that presents the research by past groups that weren't dogged by the stigma associated with investigating the uncanny. There are only a few books that are rooted in factual, empirical evidence. This volume is from 1988, well before the enclave of night-vision fools arrived on TV to blame every creek in an old house on a demon.

Time-Life Books put together some of the most grounded pieces on the preternatural world and presented the associated myths and legends of various cultures. Additionally, John Henry Pepper, the great creator of ghosts for the stage, is presented, as are the tales of vengeful spirits in Japanese kabuki theatre.

There are, however, some design flaws with the book, as sidebar stories are planted smack in the middle of a chapter breaking up the natural flow of reading the copy.

[Robert]

This book is a collection of anecdotal tales of various people from the olden days being visited by spirits. The stories go as follows: person sees ghost-like figure of distant a friend or relative. Later, person finds out that the friend/relative died at the very same moment in which the apparition manifested itself. Now imagine that same story told, with only slight variations, a hundred or so more times but in a prose style that feels like the phony paragraph at the bottom of a Mad Fold-in. Except no matter how many times you crease the pages, there's never a pithy punchline.

Cool page design, but all-in-all, not a very good entry point into this series.

[MV]

I assumed this book would have a more general slant, but it was heavily focused on investigations by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). This got pretty old, and the endless parade of examples were redundant.

While the main text used the same kinds of examples repeatedly, the sidebars and pictorial chapters varied and were more interesting by far. These highlighted topics such as ghosts of Japanese folklore and the Tower of London's purported haunts.

There are later books in this series on the topic that may approach it differently ... I hope so.

[Arthur O'Keefe]

You don't have to be a believer in the paranormal to enjoy the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown collection, and Phantom Encounters is no exception. This book is pure fun. It's also beautifully illustrated.

[Rick Vickers]

This series by Time Life is great! This is my ,2nd book and I've ordered a third. Lots of interesting stories and pictures.

[Russell Hall]

Almost too scientific, it not only looks at the stories behind the hauntings, but whether the hauntings are really independent of the person seeing and experiencing the haunting. The photo essays and short articles in the book were most interesting. If you are interested more in the mechanics of haunting this would be a good choice. If however you are looking for a scary story of real ghosts, then parts of the book will prove too technical.

[Anna Bergmark]

Okay, this hole series feels a bit juvenile, big glossy pictures taking up a lot of space, as if we would find too much reading tiresome. But apart from this ongoing problem, I kind of liked the "scientific" approach of this one.

It's not just a row of spooky tails, but an attempt to see the subject the way "psychical researchers" do, and have done for more than a century. If they have gotten anywhere is a matter of opinion of course.

3,5 stars I'd say.

[Jody]

This book includes a bunch of ghost stories, each only a few paragraphs long. It is not a memorable book. No one ever helps the ghosts cross over.

Disappointing.