Book Review: Haunted Asylums, Prisons, and Sanatoriums by Jamie Davis

Any regular reader of this blog knows that I've got a thing for ghosts (it's the whole worshiping death and spending quality time in the underworld thing).  I consume pretty much any and all media I can get my hands on regarding ghosts - whether I expect it to be good or not. 

When I stumbled upon Haunted Asylums, Prisons, and Sanatoriums: Inside Abandoned Institutions for the Crazy, Criminal & Quarantined by Jamie Davis I knew I had to read it.  You see, most ghosts are totally benign and absolutely nothing like the rampaging fright-makers you see on sensationalist paranormal television.  However, the ghosts of criminals, the insane, and the criminally insane are a different story.  I've dealt with an insane ghost and it was terrifying.  I came to this book in the hopes of finding new and interesting information on atypical hauntings, but was disappointed.

Reading the introduction to this book I was immediately put on guard by the author describing her view of ghost hunting as a thrill-seeking activity.  Don't get me wrong, I totally see the appeal of spooking yourself silly in "haunted" places, but lauding it doesn't exactly give me confidence in the veracity of ones stories.  Thankfully, the author is really good about identifying her experiences as only that and doesn't make mountains out of molehills.  No shifting tree branches that are obviously signs of demonic activity!!!! Just honest experiences of being creeped out in exceedingly creepy places.

This books is basically a paranormal tourism guide and it serves that function pretty well.  Each chapter is about a visit the author made to a different paranormal hotspot and contains some basic historical information, the author's experiences while there, and info on how you can visit (many location offer regular tours or Halloween attractions).  It's written in a very matter-of-fact, guidebook style (which is fine, but it's not exactly flowing prose).  I do like that author has a webpage with all of the video, audio, and photos taken at each location so you can look and see for yourself.

This book is fine when the author is talking about the history of the location, but I had some trouble enjoying her descriptions of her personal experiences.  The problem is that the author is clearly an amateur ghost hunter, so she doesn't exactly offer deep insights into the paranormal.  If I want to hear about someone being freaked out by shadows I'll watch it on tv where I can enjoy the jump cuts and the soundtrack can get me invested.  Reading about it just falls flat.  Nothing all that extraordinary happens.  There's really not much in this book that you can't get from surfing the web, though perhaps not quite so conveniently packaged.  This book feels like the writer watched a few seasons of Ghost Hunters and then spent some time cruising paranormal hot spots to see what all the fuss is about.  While there's nothing wrong with that, it's just not the book I wanted to read.

If you're a seasoned ghost hunter or serious paranormal enthusiast, don't bother with this book.  There's just not enough added knowledge or even entertainment value to make it worth the money.  If you're an armchair ghost lover or someone looking to plan a trip to a haunted place then you might enjoy it, but there are better sources out there.

Book Review: Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter

The other day I was looking through book reviews in back issues of The Cauldron and saw one that caught my eye.  Confessions of a Reluctant Ghost Hunter: A Cautionary Tale of Encounters with Malevolent Entities and Other Disembodied Spirits by Von Braschler was the book.  The title sounded like it was right up my alley and The Cauldron rarely steers me in the wrong way.  I wasn't disappointed.

The problem I have with most books about ghosts, hauntings, and ghost hunting in general is that they either make all ghosts seem as friendly as Casper (Oh, all ghosts want is to be loved and acknowledged.  Please, feel free to go and try to hug the angry elemental.)  or they make ghost hunters look like white knights fiercely laying to rest malevolent monsters that lurk in every corner (An evil demon, fear not! My mighty flashlight and salt shaker shall save you!).  I was delighted to find that this book did neither of those things.

This is, quite possibly, the most realistic book I've ever read on what encountering spirits and other metaphysical beings is actually like.  At first I was skeptical.  Braschler explains that his "training" to "de-ghost" houses consisted of two meetings with a cheerful new-ager who said to talk to the spirits and get them to move on, and to simply "stake and salt*" the house if it didn't want to go.  As you might imagine, this did not inspire my confidence in the tales to come.  However, Braschler then details just how insufficient that information was and how problematic it made his later encounters. 

The encounters described in this book will be instantly recognizable to anyone experienced with the paranormal as residual hauntings, intelligent hauntings, spirit flight, and non-human hauntings - though Braschler never describes them as such.  The details of the hauntings Braschler experiences are incredibly authentic in their sheer banality.  Most hauntings that you read about in books are fairly spectacular (books flying off shelves, screaming in the night, scratches on the unwary etc.), but the average haunting is just not that interesting.  Real hauntings are made of fleeting images out of the corner of your eye, odd chills at unexpected times in unexpected places, and utterly unverifiable "coincidences" that make you think you're losing your mind. These are the hauntings Braschler describes, with a few exceptions.  

The thing that most struck me about Braschler's tale that make me actually believe him is the way he describes his experience of the paranormal.  He doesn't talk about glowing lights or strange writing, he talks about having to ground and center himself and deliberately open his mind to the frequency where the paranormal can be perceived.  He doesn't describe it as easy or natural, but as a skill that requires practice and effort.  He talks about freaking himself out when going into a building that he's been told is haunted, but never really perceiving anything there that can make him confidently say the place is or isn't haunted.  He doubts his perceptions and he doubts his ability to do anything about what he perceived.  That is the reality of dealing with the paranormal: thinking you probably understand what's going on but always doubting and always needing more proof.

 There are, of course, exceptions to the normally dubious veracity of the paranormal.  I've come across the undeniably paranormal (think demons trying to eat your head) two or three times.  Braschler deals with it twice.  This is totally believable, unlike those ghost hunters who claim to banish demons every damned day.  In the last encounter described in the book Braschler gets called in by a friend to de-ghost their trailer and ends up facing down a dark non-human entity that he's woefully unprepared to deal with.  It doesn't go well. This should surprise no one.  It takes a trained and experienced practitioner to deal with the nastier dark entities. 

If you're interested in dabbling in the paranormal I highly recommend you read this book first.  Read about what actual encounters are like before you go into that purportedly haunted house.  If you recognize yourself in the stories then do yourself a favor and get some solid defensive training before you hurt yourself.

Experienced practitioners that enjoy tales of the paranormal will enjoy this too.  I know I did.

*Braschler describes the process of staking and salting a property as driving four large iron spikes (think railroad size nails) into the ground at the cardinal points of the property and calling the watchtowers to guard the property, then to create a line of salt as a perimeter to keep the spirits out.  Yes, these actions can be a part of a successful banishing but alone they're not going to do much against something that really wants to stick around.

Book Review: Advanced Magick for Begginers

As I wandered Tumblr the other day (a truly dangerous pastime), I came across an interesting quote that a friend of mine had posted.  It was from a book called Advanced Magick for Beginners by Alan Chapman.  I'd never heard of it before, but it looked interesting and I decided to check it out and I'm glad I did.  I don't think I've had as much fun reading an occult book since Lon Milo DuQuette's Chicken Kabbalah.

This is a book less about how to do magick, and more about how to think about magick in order to actually be successful in its practice.  There are dozens upon dozens of books out there that give you recipes, formulas, charts, tables, etc. on what methods you can use to achieve your desired magickal result.  There are very, very few books out there that actually explain how to think about magick and, more importantly, how not to think about magick in order to get those myriad methods to be more than magickal theater.  Chapman does so beautifully.  This book is easy to read and easy to understand.  It's no-nonsense, no-frills, get the job done kind of writing.  Complex ideas are well broken down into bite-sized pieces with tangible explanations and none of the elitist obfuscation so often found in occult texts (not that there isn't a time and place for elitist obfuscation).

The book begins with the idea that you need to ask for exactly what you want in order to get it.  "The gospel is: 'you get what you ask for.'"  This is just a restatement of the idea that you need to clearly understand your intent before performing an act of magick.  As simple as it sounds, this is something that a lot of practitioners fail to do.  It's easy to think that you know what you want, but unless you take the time to really think about it chances are good that you'll miss your mark.

Another deceptively simple idea Chapman presents is: "Ensure there is a means of manifestation for the [magick].  For a [magick] to manifest in the material world, it must be within the game rules of the material world.  Humans do not fly." Magick is all about making whatever outcome you're trying for manifest in reality.  If there's no way for that to happen without breaking all laws of physics and probability, it's just not going to happen - or at least not in the way you want it to.  Once again, it sounds like simple common sense, but it's easy to overlook in the heat of the moment.

I've long been a proponent of the "do whatever works for you" method of magickal practices.  In Chapman's approach there are no "rights" or "wrongs" in magickal practice, just what works for you (in your head and out of it) at the time.  
 
"Magick is an art because it has no laws, only arbitrary aesthetics that dictate method (as long as you decide what an experience means, you can do anything, and it works). Magick is a science because it has methodology (however arbitrary), with results that can be corroborated by peers through independent enquiry... Magick is a culture because it has implicit social and ethical considerations... Magicians (in their various guises) have always strived to understand 'how' magick works so that they might be able to do it 'correctly.'  But whenever a magician wonders 'what is the correct method of getting a result?' they are falling victim to the fog of simplicity--because what you do, and the result you get, is your decision... So if magick is limited only by your imagination, just how beautiful will you make your magick? How ecstatic?  Will magick be the most fun you've ever had in [your] life, or just the reason your wrist aches?"


This book is pretty much perfect for folks who have been studying magick for a little while (maybe 3-6 months) and want to start really practicing well.  It's also great for folks who have been doing magick longer and want to start getting better results.  (I've been doing this for over a decade and I got something out of this book.) 

I'm not sure I'd recommend this book for an absolute beginner because it references a lot of different practices and methods that an absolute beginner just wouldn't be familiar with.  Although, this might be a good companion book to read along with some of the more common "101" texts out there, particularly if the beginner's got someone more experienced they can ask questions of.

Book Review: The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions

I was browsing through amazon.com a few days ago and came across   The Little Book of Curses and Maledictions for Everyday Use by Dawn Rae Downton.  The kindle version was only a dollar so I figured I'd check it out. 

Although I rarely work curses, I do find them fascinating.  It's always interesting to see what actions other people think are curse worthy and how they try to go about laying them.  The tricky thing with curses, particularly those you haven't written yourself, is that they have a tendency to rebound back on the caster.  They usually end up just creating a really strong link between the caster and the target, often making both parties truly miserable.

I would never cast a curse because someone was gossiping about me, cut in line for the bus, or generally annoyed me.  I just don't think that sort of behavior rises to the level of curse-worthy.  If I'm going to forge a semi-permanent link between me and someone I detest they would need to have done something really, really bad.  I'm talking physically harming someone I care about, emotionally eviscerating a friend, that sort of thing.  But that's just me.  There are lots of practitioners out there that have no problem hexing someone for whatever reason.  It's up to you to determine your own curse ethics.

In this book there are three kinds of curses: the revenge curse, the warning curse, and the binding curse.

The revenge curses are probably what we all think of when we think of hexes, and curses.  This is the "make my ex miserable," "get my boss fired," "punish that thief," kind of curses that get popular media all hot and bothered.  Most of these are variations on traditional hexes and curses with a few twists to make them appropriate for contemporary casters.  They're all pretty easy to cast and if you know how to focus your energy and put it into a spell they they should work.  Of course, if you don't actually know what you're doing these spells probably won't do more than give you a small sense of satisfaction.

The warning curses are spells designed to prevent or end bad situations.  I wouldn't actually call these curses, since they don't actually visit harm on another.  I think these spells are only called curses in this book because they use the same types of techniques and ingredients as the more traditional revenge curses.  However, this section does have my favorite spell from the book, "The Eastwood."  It's basically a ward against douchbaggery.  You create a special pouch that you can wear when you want to prevent rudeness.  I would think that this sort of spell would loose it's potency rather quickly, so it would have to be done repeatedly.

The binding curses, unsurprisingly, bind the target to do, or refrain from doing, a particular thing.  Honestly, these are the kinds of curses I am least comfortable with.  The idea of infringing on someone else's free will does not sit well with me, but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.

Overall, this book is decent for what it is.  It gives the curious an interesting overview of what kinds of things curses and maledictions can do and gives inspiration to those actually wanting to cast a curse.  Would I do any of the spells in here as written? No, because a spell is always best when personalized and for something that requires as much commitment as a true curse you should be willing to make it your own.  That being said, if you did the spells as written in the proper frame of mind they'd probably work.  I just wouldn't recommend anyone trying it if they're not already accustomed to magick.

Overall I'd give this a 3 1/2 out of five for content, but for $1 that's just fine.

Book Review - Restless in Peace

I've just finished a fun little book called Restless in Peace: A Psychic Mortician's Encounters with Those who Refuse to Rest.  It's essentially a book of ghost stories, but it's unlike any other I've encountered.

The book is about the ghostly encounters of the author Mariah de la Croix during her time working in funeral homes.  The author tells stories of ghosts who stop by as their bodies are visited by their families, spirits who decide to linger after their bodies are buried, ghost of folks who worked or died on the properties, etc.  She even has a chapter on shadow people.  They're great stories: some a bit creepy, others heartwarming, others downright scary.

What I like most about this book is the matter of fact tone of the author.  These are all things that she experienced, from the slightly odd to the truly bizzare.  She doesn't sensationalize the stories or play up the creep factor.  She simply tells how she felt about things when they were happening and then reflects on them a little.  She shows tremendous respect for the spirits; which anyone who has really worked with them can appreciate.

Oftentimes personal accounts of ghost encounters can be overly dramatized.  The littlest thing is "an evil spirit" or a "demon."  That's not the case with this book.  I believe the author because most of the spirits the she encountered acted just like normal people would.  Sure, she ran in to a few dark entities, by they were few and far between - just like they actually are.  She doesn't over dramatize her own actions either.  She doesn't talk about gibbering in fear or blodly facing a demon with nothing but a stick.  Here's her reaction to a shadowy mass approaching her:

I backed up and banged into the door, which abruptly slammed, barring my way out of the room. At that point, I could scream loudly, slip to the floor and whimper, or I could stand there and behave as if I’d done this a hundred times before; in other words, fake it. Brilliant me decided to stand my ground and bluff it away. I had no idea what I was doing.

Oh yeah, I sooooo know how that feels.  This is a woman I can seriously relate to.

If you want to read about what ghosts are actually like read this book.  This is how they actually behave.  If you want a good read with a little spookiness and a lot of reality pick this one up.  I highly enjoyed it.

Book Review – The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide by Michelle Belanger

I often kill time by browsing my amazon recommendation list.  This has brought me to some of the best and worst books that now live in my library.  The other day my list popped up with the suggestion that I read Michelle Belanger’s The Ghost Hunter’s SurvivalGuide.  I was leery at first because I am not generally the author’s biggest fan.  However, since the kindle version of the book was only $2.99 I figured what the hell.  I was surprised to find that there was actually some useful information in the book, though not the kind I was expecting.

With a title like The Ghost Hunter’s Survival Guide I was expecting the book to focus on how investigators can protect themselves during an investigation.  The book did spend about a chapter on this - discussing grounding and centering on a very basic level and an introduction to simple shields.  However, the topic of protecting the investigator stopped there.  Instead, the vast majority of the book focuses on how to cleanse a haunted house.  So if you’re looking for a book that gives basic “how to deal with negative energy in a dwelling” information then this might be a decent book to start with.

On the plus side, the book is well written.  It’s organized as a story of a particular haunting investigation and house cleansing.  Each chapter tells a bit of the story and then goes into some technical details of what was done.  The story makes the book an entertaining read and thus worth the three bucks I spent on it.  The techniques she discusses for removing attachments and getting rid of stagnant energy are all good solid techniques if you’re unfamiliar with the practices.  If you already have any proficiency with energetic cleansing then you really don’t need this book.  (I’m certainly biased but I think most people would be better off getting my book instead.)

I guess my biggest problem with this book is that it’s really not what I expected from the title and the book jacket description.  This is not a book for paranormal investigators.  The actual “investigation” that’s discussed in this book is really just Belanger getting the psychic lay of the land and isn’t what I’ve come to expect from people that use the term “ghost hunter.”  I tend to lump ghost hunters with paranormal investigators – folks who go into purportedly haunted place and try to gather some kind of tangible evidence that something beyond the mundane is going on.  When I get a call from someone who wants my help dealing with a haunting I will basically do what Belanger outlines – go to the house, get a feel for it and then do the appropriate cleansing- but I don’t call myself a ghost hunter for doing it.  That’s not being a ghost hunter, just a good witch.

So yeah, I give this book a solid “meh.”  I didn’t really like it, but I didn’t really dislike it either.  Belanger’s techniques are all well explained and will actually work if done correctly, but they’re really not for ghost hunters they’re for people who specialize in banishing.  If you’re a ghost hunter who wants to transition to performing cleansings and banishings, then this might be the book for you.  There are better books out there on basic psychic protection whose techniques will be far more valuable to paranormal investigators.

Check out my previous blog post on psychic protection for paranormal investigators.

Book Reviews – Facing Violence and The Gift of Fear

Last week I was a reading fiend.  I finished two books, one I had just found on amazon and another that I’d been meaning to read for quite some time.  The books were Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected by Rory Miller and The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.  Now, these books aren’t the type of magickal books I normally review in this blog but I feel they have a place here.  Both of these books are about keeping yourself safe in the mundane world against the kinds of dangers that we all face every day.  I feel that it is vital to compliment magickal defense with plain, no nonsense, physical defense.  All the magick in the world won’t stop a bullet speeding towards your heart at greater than the speed of sound.  It might help you avoid being shot at in the first place, but you’d have to be a greater wizard than I to deflect a shot at point blank.

The first book I read was Facing Violence by Rory Miller.  This book is about learning how to deal with real world violence.  Most people aren’t programmed to deal effectively with violence.  We’re taught to be nice, polite, don’t stare, don’t be suspicious.  Well guess what, if someone it coming at you with a raised fist or worse the time for politeness is over.  This book teaches the reader how to read a potentially violent situation, how to diffuse it before it gets to violence, and how to act (and not get sued or arrested) if violence should happen to you.  Anyone who’s ever been in a real balls to the walls brawl knows the feeling of frozen white noise rushing through your head when you really begin to panic.  This book gives you the tools to get out of that headspace as quickly as possible so you can do more then get your ass handed to you.  It’s a very well written book, with lots of real world scenarios to make the concepts easy to understand and relevant to anyone.  I will probably be re-reading this sometime in the very near future.

The second book I read was The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.  This is a book that had been on my wish list for a very long time.  This book is all about learning how to trust your own safety instincts.  Everyone observes things that they don’t really think about.  Your subconscious mind uses those billions of observations to form you instincts, your gut reactions.  Most of the time we’re taught to ignore those instincts because acting on them doesn’t fit into a smooth civil demeanor.  This book shows the reader how to look more deeply into their gut feelings and figure out what observations caused them, making it much easier to determine what really needs to be acted on.  It shows us how to listen to our fears to keep ourselves safe.  Beyond that, it teaches something even more important – how to distinguish between worry and actual fear.  Too many people are paralyzed by worries that don’t have any basis in fact (or at least not the facts they believed them to be based in) and this book explains why and what to do about it.  It’s well written, thorough, and actually quite comforting.  I might just make this mandatory reading for my students.

Book Review – Travels Through Middle Earth by Alaric Albertsson

A few days ago I was in my favourite local shop, Edge of the Circle Books, and wandered over to the section on Northern Paganism (Saxon, Norse, Icelandic, etc.).  Normally I just glance over sections outside of my expertise but this time I stopped and took a closer look.  I realized that I know almost nothing about the beliefs and practices of a whole host of Pagans and figured I needed to work on that.  Like many, I was introduced to Paganism through the lens of Wicca and Celtic mythology.  The Celtic myths resonated with me and other really didn’t, so I never went to deeply into other pantheons or beliefs.  These days I’m spending far too much time with far too great a variety of people to allow my knowledge to be so limited.  After sifting around the shelves for a while I found Travels Through Middle Earth: The Path of a Saxon Pagan by Alaric Albertsson and it intrigued me.

The book is an easy read and is quite basic.  It outlines the fundamental tenants of Saxon Paganism – it’s deities, beliefs and practices – in a well written, conversational style.  If you’re already familiar with Wicca you’ll find many similarities.  Dear old Gerald Gardner took inspiration from many Saxon practices and incorporated them into Wicca.  One thing Albertsson does that I particularly like is draw attention to the places where Saxon Paganism specifically differs from both Wiccan and Norse Paganism.  For example, the differences between a Saxon cleansing and warding of a space before worship as opposed to the Wiccan practice of casting a circle – similar effects, but different on both a practical and philosophical level.

Other strong points include the depth of Albertsson’s explanations and his honesty.  Albertsson took the time to explore the philosophies and beliefs that underlie different Saxon practices, so you know learn not only what Saxons do but why.  I enjoyed his descriptions of various Saxon practices – such as herb work and astral travel – but particularly like the fact that he acknowledged that such practices are reconstructions of what the early Saxons may have practiced but that due to lack of written history we don’t actually know that they performed them.  His explanations of the deeper meanings of their magickal practices and how they fit into the overall scheme of Saxon belief were very well done.

Overall I enjoyed the book very much and really liked learning about another take on Paganism.  This book was a great introduction to the beliefs and practices of Saxon Paganism.  I’ve decided to read Albertsson’s second book Wyrdworking: The Path of a Saxon Sorcerer to learn a little more about the specifics of Saxon magick.  I’ll let you know how I like it.  If anyone has any suggestions for other books on Saxon Paganism (or any other kind really) that you think I should read please leave me a comment and I’ll add them to the list.