Return to Cauldron Home Page

Please donate now to pay our monthly server fees:
Donate to The Cauldron
[More Info]

Community Menu
Community Home

Message Board
Board Home
Board Rules
Board Extras:
   Arcade
   Calendar
   Links

CauldronMUX [Client]
Sister Forums:
   Asatru Lore

Menu

Home
Site Info & Rules
Site Archives
Volunteers Needed
Advertise Here

Pagan Supplies
Buy Pagan Books
Buy Pagan Supplies

Books & Media
Books Home
Games Home
Music: Free | Pagan
Online Books
Pagan Book Browser
Reviews:
   Academic Books
   Divination Decks
   Fiction Books
   Pagan Books
   Speculative Books
   DVD & Videotape
Submit Review

Pagan Features
Article Library
Auctions
Chat Log Index
File Library
Humor
Lessons
Pagan Holidays
Pagan Primer
Pagan Rituals
Pagan Supplies
Pagan Youth
Polls
Reconstructionism
Spell Grimoire [Blog]
Web Resources

Pagan Living
Cauldron Cookbook
Take Political Action

Newsletter
Back Issues
Subscribe

Other Features
eCauldronMail
Greeting Cards
Syndicated Articles
World News/Opinion

Shopping
Cheap Web Hosting
Doxy's Bazaar
Witchcraft Course
Zazzle

Old Indexes
Article Index
Webcrafting Index

Network Sites
Cauldron and Candle
Cauldron's Grimoire
RetroRoleplaying
RetroRoleplaying: The Blog
Software Gadgets
The Terran Empire

Site Search
Google
Entire Web
The Cauldron

Member - Pagan Forum Alliance
Charter Member

Get Firefox! While this web site is designed to work in all major browsers, we recommend Firefox.

This site hosted on
a Linode VPS
Formerly hosted by

Why Use Dreamhost?

Site copyright
© 1998-2009
by Randall

Home > Books & Reviews > Pagan > True Hauntings Search

Order from Amazon.com
Buying books via our Amazon.com links helps support The Cauldron.
Book Review:
True Hauntings

1567182186
Author: Hazel M. Denning, Ph.D.
Trade Paperback, 220 pages
Publisher: Llewellyn
Publication date: 2003
List: US$12.95, C$19.95
ISBN: 1567182186
Price & More Info: Click Here


 
Dr. Denning approached the field of parapsychology from the related field of psychotherapy. She is not one of the many individuals who have set themselves up in this field to prove their own personal belief systems. She does display sympathy for, and an understanding of, the Spiritualism movement. How much that influences her perceptions is impossible to determine strictly from her writings.

There are far too many books of ghost stories out there nowadays. There are not so many books which go into the reasons for hauntings and apparitions. The first type says "There was a ghost in such a location. It did such and such. It was sent on its way (or nothing could be done about it, or there was no evidence of such an event, etc.)." The second type, of which this is one, says "Such a thing happened. We checked into the background of the person/place/event. We explained it to the discarnate being/person asking for our help. A follow-up later revealed."

When checking out a reported haunting Dr. Denning not only asks about the event connected with the location and the entity involved in the event(s), but also about the connection, if any, between the discarnate entity and the person reporting it; she also asks about current and past strong emotions felt by the reporter. She uses whatever tools are appropriate to the case, from simple explanation to hypnosis.

The second half of the book moves away from the haunting of places and deals with what Dr. Denning refers to as "...possession, invasion, overlapping, or psychic attack.

Dr. Denning brings a refreshing skepticism, albeit one with an ability to accept what can't always be proven, to the subject. On page 144 she says: "It is difficult for me to accept that intelligent energies, which I cannot see or feel, are actually interacting in my presence. I only know that something important is happening to my clients. It is very real to them, real enough that changes take place in their lives and problems, often of long standing, are resolved." That statement is such a pleasant change from the dogmatism often displayed on both sides of the discussion of spirits and hauntings.

Unlike many of the books in this field, there is very little emphasis on spectacular cases. The majority of the cases related in this book are almost mundane in their circumstances. Mention is made of some of the better known mediums in the next-to-last chapter, and a brief recap is made of some of the hauntings and "coincidences" around the White House in an earlier chapter, but these are not stressed, merely mentioned in passing.

Looking for a book full of eerie ghost stories? Want to read about horrible curses and specters chasing people from their homes? Sorry, you'll need to keep looking. If, on the other hand, you are looking for reassurance that encountering haunted houses, unexpected feelings of being uncomfortable in some surroundings, and occasionally "knowing" something with no logical way to know it, doesn't mean you are "losing your mind," this book will be a comfort to you. It should make the whole subject less intimidating and more understandable.

The author includes a short glossary at the back of the book as well as a short bibliography for further reading. Both of these could have benefited, in my opinion, from being expanded a bit.

Reviewed by Mike Gleason


Top | Home | Message Board | Site Info & Rules | Report Site Problems
Thanks to Cauldron Sponsors
(Sponsor The Cauldron!)

Cheap Web Hosting Report | Pagan & Magick Supplies
Witchcraft Course
Download Hundreds of Magic Spells