Ghosts traces the cultural and literary origins of the paranormal, reveals the secrets behind many mysterious myths and legends, and analyzes our continued fascination with visitors from the other side. With chapters on the origins of ghosts, poltergeists, ghosts from around the world, exorcism, haunted houses, and more, this book will keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Ghosts investigates our continued obsession with visitors from the other side, and establishes once and for all where the horror begins—and ends. Belief in ghosts is nothing new. It goes back thousands of years and is a feature of many cultures around the world. Uncertainty about death is part of the human condition and the existence of an afterlife is deeply rooted in most worldwide cultures and religions.
This hardcover, full-color book makes a wonderful addition to any paranormal enthusiast's library. It is sure to catch the interest of anyone interested in the occult or in ghost stories in literature and popular culture. Readers will be informed, entertained, and frightened by this comprehensive volume about "the other side."
Features interesting tales of ghost sightings; though the chapters relaying ghosts in music and movies gets to be tedious as it gives long-winded rundowns of the most popular (and most likely to be heard/seen) ones.
Overall This book is more of an introduction then a complete guide to the supernatural as the title says. However, the book still provides good information and its good for any fan of the supernatural.
Review The presentation of the book is well done. The pages are glossy and easy to read font. Each section does a great job presenting the supernatural. Not only are there good descriptions for the supernatural but there are pictures that show what they are talking about. The best part is it gives references to the supernatural in tv and movies so you can check out. However, as a complete guide it falls short. It mostly talks about the most common supernatural that most people know.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking to begin delving into the paranormal possibility of ghosts. I personally didn't get as much out of this book as I'd hoped, but I think this is because I have been reading about ghosts for a number of years already. This book touches on where the ideas of ghosts came from, as well as delving into modern lore, and goes as far as discussing TV and movies, and how this has affected the research of the possibility of ghosts. Again, not a book that shed much light for me, but I still enjoyed reading it.
This book is a part of a series of really great coffee table books that I have been collecting. In my opinion this is one of the best ones I've read yet, full of very eerie documented haunting and possession cases, with accompanying photos of ghostly sightings and haunted buildings. It definitely gave me the chills a few nights while reading this book before bed.
Not actually a "complete guide". More like a skim. It also covers film and tv ghost appearances briefly which I found very unrelated but an interesting-to-browse read.