This doorstop of a mass market is awesome! The author, Loyd Auerbach, Wikipedia tells me “has described himself akin to a psychiatrist who deals with psychic phenomena, stating that most ghosts and poltergeists are not real entities, but rather psychic phenomena.” and that makes sense, given the approach of this book.

In it, Aurebach helps you understand “the science of ghostbusting”, explaining the difference between Apparitions, Poltergeists, and Hauntings; the history of parapsychology; what skeptics say; spontaneous PSI; OBEs, NDEs, and Reincarnation; lab studies; and how it can all get blurry when you try to figure out if what you’re seeing is a real ghost (like Patrick Swaze), an apparition (more like a replayed recording of an event); or someone projecting a memory or imagining psychically (like a real poltergeist, not like that demon entity in the movie, Poltergeist¹).

The second part of the book talks about parapsychology in the news, movies, radio, and fiction; his own experiences investigating phenomenon; and then what you can do if you see something that you can’t explain, what questions to ask, what notes to take, and where to report it.²

Auerbach’s approach is interesting. In one poltergeist case he investigated, a family was also seeing an apparition that resembled Darth Vader. Because of that, he traced it back to a teenager in the family, who was – as teenagers generally are – in unresolved conflict with the rest of the family. He finally used psychology to advise the family how to resolve their conflict and the poltergeist activity went away.

He seems credible to me, at least in this book³. He’s a magician, so he can spot fakes, and rightfully calls out the Amity Horror as fraudulent.⁴ And, Wikipedia tells me that his side gig is, get this, chocolatier.

Yep, totally credible.

Sometimes I think about that question that people ask you, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail and money was no obstacle?” Me, I’d be a parapsychologist. Why not?⁵

This book is a lot of fun to read – my copy is so well-loved that it is coming apart at the seams and I’m going to soon have to shelve it in a zip-lock so I don’t lose pages.

Or maybe I should see if I can find a newer⁶ copy – perhaps he had updated it with some of the latest science.

Nah, I’m sticking with this one.

1. Great movie but not about a poltergeist. ↩︎
2. Although my copy, decades old, is so out of date, I’m guessing none of the addresses or phone numbers – no websites even! – will work. ↩︎
3. I haven’t read his others. And, after Jacques Vallee went a little off-base with his last book, I now judge credibility case by case. ↩︎
4. If you didn’t realize that, shame on you! ↩︎
5. Some guy in a deli told me the other day that I looked like an Astrologer – no, I was not wearing a long caftan, turban, long beads, hoops, and rings on my fingers. ↩︎
6. It’s out of print but there must be a more recent copy than the one I have. ↩︎