Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death

Deborah Blum

Penguin, May 29, 2007 - Body, Mind & Spirit - 370 pages

A Pulitzer Prize?winning author tells the amazing story of William James?s quest for empirical evidence of the spirit world

What if a world -renowned philosopher and professor of psychiatry at Harvard suddenly announced he believed in ghosts? At the close of the nineteenth century, the illustrious William James led a determined scientific investigation into ?unexplainable? incidences of clairvoyance and ghostly visitations. James and a small group of eminent scientists staked their reputations, their careers, even their sanity on one of the most extraordinary quests ever undertaken: to empirically prove the existence of ghosts, spirits, and psychic phenomena. What they pursued? and what they found?raises questions as fascinating today as they were then.

What people are saying

Review: Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death

User Review  - Susan - Goodreads

I liked it, but I continue to be just a bit disappointed with this author. She picks AWESOME topics, but doesn't quite bring them to life. But she knows how to pick and research a story, which saves her and makes me keep reading.

Review: Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death

User Review  - Shannon Burrows - Goodreads

Very interesting!

Contents

• PRELUDE: 1
• THE NIGHT SIDE: 7
• A SPIRIT OF UNBELIEF: 33
• LIGHTS AND SHADOWS: 51
• METAPHYSICS AND METATROUSERS: 75
• INFINITE RATIONALITY: 105
• ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE: 131
• THE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY: 157
• THE INVENTION OF ECTOPLASM: 185
• THE UNEARTHLY ARCHIVE: 209
• A PROPHECY OF DEATH: 237
• A FORCE NOT GENERALLY RECOGNIZED: 267
• A GHOST STORY: 295

About the author

Pulitzer Prize winner Deborah Blum is a professor of science journalism at the University of Wisconsin. She worked as a newspaper science writer for twenty years, winning the Pulitzer in 1992 for her writing about primate research, which she turned into a book, The Monkey Wars (Oxford, 1994). Her other books include Sex on the Brain (Viking, 1997) and Love at Goon Park (Perseus, 2002). She has written about scientific research for The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Discover, Health, Psychology Today, and Mother Jones. She is a past president of the National Association of Science Writers and now serves on an advisory board to the World Federation of Science Journalists and the National Academy of Sciences.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death
• Author: Deborah Blum
• Edition: reprint
• Publisher: Penguin, 2007
• ISBN: 0143038958, 9780143038955
• Length: 370 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / Parapsychology / General; Body, Mind & Spirit / Supernatural; Psychology / History