#29 of 52 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks
Seeking Spirits is the follow-up book to Ghost Hunting: True Stories of Unexplained Phenomena from The Atlantic Paranormal Society. In case you’re not familiar with the authors, Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are the founders of The Atlantic Paranormal Society. They have a show on the SyFy channel, Ghost Hunters.
While I enjoyed the first book, I was disappointed that it rehashed episodes of Ghost Hunters that had already aired on TV. Also, the majority of the book had been written from Jason’s perspective, with Grant chiming in only at the end of each chapter to offer his conclusion. Seeking Spirits is better organized and more well-written. Chapters alternate between Jason’s point of view as well as Grant’s. At the end of each chapter, there is a brief section on ghost hunting related topics, but there’s not much new if you’ve seen the TV show before (or watch it regularly).
I have mixed feelings about the book. On the surface, it tells some very intriguing stories–and some very frightening. It also makes some fairly fantastic claims about the paranormal. I’d love to see the video evidence mentioned. The problem is, I’m not sure I believe all the anecdotes in this book.
In recent seasons of Ghost Hunters–four and five in particular–the focus of the show has shifted from helping ordinary people in their homes, to investigating tourist attractions or businesses. I feel that the show has become too commercial. As such, while Seeking Spirits tells of cases from before the show, I have trouble believing them at face value, especially the cases about demon possession and other wild paranormal incidents like that.
I consider myself a skeptic, but still a TAPS and Ghost Hunters fan–though my enthusiasm for them has waned in recent years. I think these amazing claims are worth considering. I hope the stories are true, because I don’t want to think that TAPS is deliberately misleading people just to profit from the books or the show. I just have trouble believing everything that I’ve read, considering that seasons four and five have not presented evidence nearly as revolutionary as the claims of this book.
Also, the position of TAPS with regard to inhuman/negative/demonic activity was a point of contention for me. I’m agnostic, so I didn’t agree with the religious opinions they put forth as explanations of the evidence they claim to have caught. I think their point of view is valid, but I don’t quite agree with their conclusions about supposed “demonic” activity. I’m not even sure demons exist, but that’s a whole other argument.
So overall, I enjoyed the book. It has great ghost stories in it. I just don’t believe them at face value. I’d like to see some type of evidence, whether video or audio, to back up and validate these claims. The photos included in the book weren’t enough to convince me. I am, as I said, skeptical; TAPS is not excluded from my doubts. I’m sure they’re used to being questioned, so I don’t think I’m alone in my feelings.
But at the same time, I want to believe that these stories they’ve presented are not fiction. It’s just hard to believe that they’ve caught such outrageous evidence in the past, when their findings on the show recently have been so disappointing.
