The summer of 2021, July to be specific, a British ghost-hunting couple livestreamed to 1.8 million Facebook followers their investigation of a notoriously haunted hotel. The camera captured two spooky figures holding hands at the end of a corridor. Local news outlets ran the story speculating comparison to the twin girls in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining. But a trick of the camera’s angle had created the image. The ghostly twins turned out to be side-by-side wall-mounted fire extinguishers.
Alice Vernon’s new book, Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking, describes many such paranormal scenarios through the past 200 years. She wants to understand why we continue to seek proof that ghosts exist despite relentless false positives. Much of what she writes about is fascinating, and her open-minded approach gives the book its strength. Vernon doesn’t believe in ghosts, and yet she recognizes the possibility she could be proven wrong.
Vernon begins with séances, which became popular in the 19th century. Sisters Kate and Margaret Fox started the craze in 1848 when they communicated with a restless ghost they called Mr. Splitfoot. He was haunting their American farmhouse where he had been murdered. Supposedly, Mr. Splitfoot could communicate intelligently by knocking. The Fox sisters created a séance format that could be adapted – easily adapted – and it was. Mediums began hanging out shingles.
Capturing ghosts in photographs also was popular. In the 1860s, an American jewelry engraver, William Mumler, manipulated portraits to include ghosts hovering near the stoic-faced sitters. Suspicious details eventually took him to court.
Spiritualism lost its allure as the 20th century began. It seemed like a silly pastime, until World War I reversed that thinking. Families grieving their soldiers, who died on the battlefield and never came home, turned to séances for hope and comfort.
I loved the chapter on poltergeists, those noisy furniture-throwing pests, but at that point in the book, I began to think, this ghost-hunting history is all the same: communicating with the dead, unwavering believers, exploiting mediums, and truth-revealing critics. I wanted evolution. I wanted an arc. As if I was reading a novel. Then it dawned on me – this is the point. Ghost hunting is an ongoing, repeating investigation, until it’s not.
Which makes it so captivating, the possibility of what we’ve yet to find.
Professional paranormal societies exist to legitimize ghost hunting. Vernon trained with one of them. It’s among several personal experiences she shares with warmth and breezy insights. Also, her superstitions come through, such as when she purchased a haunted doll on eBay. She startles, when the doll’s eyelids blink closed with a soft clack, then realizes she simply didn’t expect the doll could blink.
Without a doubt, we’re in the hands of a curious and passionate researcher who makes it comfortably easy to spend time with her diligent work. She concludes ghost hunting has purpose. Also, it’s about much more than finding ghosts, which her book eloquently explains.
Ghosted: A History of Ghost Hunting, and Why We Keep Looking by Alice Vernon is published by Bloomsbury Sigma. A version of this review was broadcast on NPR member station WOSU 89.7 FM.
The Longest Chapter 