general overview

Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe apply their general interest in the unusual and the 'occult' to the topic of ghosts, life after death, and the question of the spirit or soul. The result is an easy reading book which will at the very least cause one to contemplate the nature of life to a certain extent.

The authors break the book down hand recountings of near-death experiences, controlled and uncontrolled out of body experiences, seance activities, automatic writing (a form of possession), past life regression and reincarnation, and the question of poltergeists. The writing throughout is on point, never dull, often humorous and light, and engaging. The authors have also liberally illustrated the book with their own photographs (more travelogue than professional caliber) and sketches (not so good). Finally they include personal interviews of physics, clairvoyants and clairaudients of their acquaintance, which nicely rounds out a book which has come to focus less on death than on the existence of a spirit world all around us. Throughout, the authors are concerned about documentation, about verification of what they report; they are perfectly cognizant of the skepticism of the public, and of the frequently fraudulent or sloppy reporting of this kind of material.

I liked the book, and I felt that overall the accumulation of story after story, well documented, does get across the point that physical death, no matter how potentially irksome, is not by any means final, and is in fact becoming less and less of a mystery as well.