The Author of Chasing Ghosts Takes Us on a Tour of the Spirit World

Halloween season is approaching, and because the days get shorter, our ideas inevitably flip to all issues spooky. With that in thoughts, io9 knew we wished to talk with Marc Hartzman, writer of the brand-new nonfiction launch Chasing Ghosts: A Tour of Our Fascination With Spirits and the Supernatural.

Chasing Ghosts delves into the historical past of humanity’s perception in, you guessed it, ghosts. It additionally appears at how individuals have tried to pierce the veil and make contact with the departed over time—and the way, simply as typically, skeptics have got down to debunk their paranormal claims. What follows is a calmly edited and condensed model of our telephone dialog with Hartzman.

Cheryl Eddy, io9: You’ve written a number of books on offbeat matters (bizarre issues discovered on eBay, sideshow performers, the unusual historical past of Mars, and our obsession with Mars). What led you to ghosts as your subsequent topic?

Marc Hartzman: Well, it undoubtedly falls into that world of the weird. As you’ll be able to inform, I actually love these offbeat fringe matters. I do a web site known as Weird Historian, which is filled with totally different sorts of tales. Lots of tales in regards to the paranormal there. I’ve simply all the time liked this type of factor—I’ve been into the unusual and weird since I used to be a child. So ghosts have been a part of that, after which there’s a pair different issues I suppose which are linked to it. One is, I’ve all the time had this form of concern and concern about dying—not, I assume, about dying particularly, however extra about the way it’s dealt with, and burial, and if burial is the incorrect factor to do. Like, what if it’s a giant mistake, and our souls are all trapped, nonetheless have some consciousness, however we are able to’t do something about it as a result of we’re caught in a field six toes underground? That’s all the time been a bit worrisome. [Laughs.] I wrote one other guide known as The Embalmed Head of Oliver Cromwell: A Memoir, that sort of touches on that topic a bit bit. But simply that considered “Is there survival, does our consciousness live on?”, is all the time one thing I’ve been interested by.

Over the previous a number of years I’ve actually gotten into the spiritualism motion from the late 1800s and early 1900s, simply accumulating a bunch of books from that period, studying a bunch of tales, and writing articles for Weird Historian—it’s simply such an interesting time. It’s humorous since you may have a look at my final guide, The Big Book of Mars, and this one’s Chasing Ghosts and assume there’s no connection, however there’s really numerous connection in my thoughts. One of these is that it’s sort of in the identical period of the late 1800s, early 1900s, that turn-of-the-century Victorian kind of period. There have been all these wonderful issues occurring and various kinds of beliefs, and new applied sciences the place all types of latest issues all of a sudden appeared doable. That will need to have been an fascinating time! The identical factor was occurring with spiritualism—you will have hundreds of thousands of individuals who have been believers, pondering that we might completely talk with the useless. It wasn’t even a query, it was like, “Yep, now we know! There’s definitely life after death and this is what people are saying about it.” You had all these mediums popping up throughout, producing these wonderful results, unimaginable manifestations that have been extremely plausible to individuals. So I simply discovered that complete period utterly fascinating. The roots or the seeds of the guide have been all the time there, however the spiritualism motion actually received me digging into it much more, and the guide form of branched off from there.

io9: Ghosts are clearly a broad matter and the guide is damaged into 4 distinct sections: ghosts or tales of the afterlife all through historical past, the spiritualism motion, hauntings, and the connection between know-how and ghosts. Why did you resolve to divide up the subject into these particular areas of focus?

Hartzman: I assumed that lined a very good vary, you understand? I didn’t write the guide so as; I began with spiritualism, and I believe it’s necessary to indicate that it was in no way new, after all. Belief in ghosts and spirits, nevertheless you outline it, goes all the way in which again to so long as there have been people. I believe it’s necessary to indicate the traditional cultures and what their beliefs have been, and going by means of medieval occasions, purgatory, Christian beliefs—I discover all these evolutions of it actually fascinating, as much as Swedenborgianism and totally different occultists and issues like that. It all sort of leads into the fashionable spiritualism motion, up by means of Andrew Jackson Davis—who simply preceded the Fox sisters, the place issues actually kicked off in 1848.

There’s a bit little bit of overlap with spiritualism and know-how since you get into, like, William Mumler, the primary spirit photographer, I sort of separated him out into know-how. That gave me an opportunity to inform one other form of department of the world of ghosts, which is making an attempt to seize them—whether or not they really believed they have been searching them, or simply profiting off individuals pondering they have been capturing them, just like the spirit photographers. But once more the spirit pictures sort of will get again into what I used to be saying earlier than about new applied sciences and new beliefs and issues that may be doable. The digicam comes out, and possibly it will possibly see issues we are able to’t, and why not consider that may be doable? It’s all-new, proper? But then you definitely get into Hereward Carrington, you understand, all of his units making an attempt to detect ghosts and the individuals he was working with, proper up by means of the stuff you see on each [ghost-hunting] TV present immediately with all types of apparatus and ghost-detection machines. Plenty of that sort of stems out of Ghostbusters: “Oh, you can use machines to capture ghosts?” That sort of sparks a brand new technology of ghost hunters.

I believe all of these makes use of are actually fascinating, nevertheless it additionally sort of gave me an opportunity to discover numerous science. The know-how is fascinating in what it would seize, and the way it may assist present that ghosts aren’t ghosts. Like how an EMF reader may probably not detect a ghost however may detect why you thought you noticed a ghost there. Because there’s this different factor occurring, which is why these electromagnetic area ranges have been going off the charts—it’s really due to this elevator financial institution behind a wall in an residence constructing, to make use of one instance a parapsychologist described to me within the guide.

I additionally love the tales of “infrasounds” that Vic Tandy found within the late ‘70s and early ‘80s—he discovered this frequency at 18.9 Hz that was something that we don’t detect, nevertheless it impacts the mind and like vibrates the eyeballs and makes individuals see shadowy figures and really feel like there’s one thing paranormal occurring. He discovers that this is happening in a haunted cathedral cellar from the 14th century. “Oh, there’s infrasound here? Maybe that’s explaining some of these feelings people are having.” By no means—and he mentioned this as properly—this isn’t explaining every thing, however possibly it explains just a few issues, which is fascinating.

So I sort of love that science solves some issues, however not every thing, and there’s nonetheless this complete world of thriller left though we continue to learn and maintain advancing our know-how. And I believe you’ve gotta cowl haunted locations in a guide about ghosts. There’s hundreds of tales about haunted locations, so then it turns into of combination of making an attempt to cowl a stability of recognized tales and sort of digging deeper into them, and likewise protecting stuff that may be lesser-known, making an attempt to create a stability of distinctive tales of haunted locations.

io9: For all of the individuals within the guide who declare to have seen or communicated with ghosts, there are simply as many skeptics and debunkers, it doesn’t matter what interval of historical past you’re speaking about. Why do you assume that’s?

Hartzman: It’s a kind of issues that we are able to’t show. No one can show survival of consciousness. No know-how goes to seize that for certain. There’s no machine that’s going to inform us “Yes, this is definitive.” So I believe that’s all the time going to go away individuals skeptical it doesn’t matter what … throughout spiritualism, the largest skeptics have been magicians as a result of they knew the sorts of tips that individuals have been using. They wished to reveal these individuals. And extra not too long ago you will have individuals just like the late James Randi who would expose numerous these items and was an enormous skeptic.

There’s all the time going to be individuals who do consider it’s incorrect, and so they can typically show that there are frauds. That was Houdini’s large factor, he thought it was horrible what mediums have been doing to individuals, taking their cash beneath the guise of getting them talk with a misplaced liked one and profiting from their grief, and fooling them into one thing and stealing from them in that sense. He thought that was incorrect. Whereas in his thoughts, he mentioned that in case you come to a magician’s present, and also you pay for the ticket, there’s an understanding between us that what you’re seeing is an phantasm. It’s a distinct relationship with the viewers than a medium would have—so I believe there’s additionally possibly justice concerned, to some extent, in the case of that.

io9: Are you a skeptic or believer, and did engaged on this guide change your viewpoint?

Hartzman: That’s sort of a tricky query. I’d say I’m extra of a believer than a skeptic, however I’m not 100% offered. I’d say that engaged on the guide did change my perspective a bit, and I’d say it pushed me a bit extra in direction of a believer. Part of that’s simply because there’s a bunch of tales within the guide the place there’s skeptics that designate issues properly, and clearly there’s magicians who’ve defined totally different tips from mediums. Plenty of stuff comes out like, “Oh that’s how they did it? That’s all they were doing?” Or like “Oh, it’s infrasound.” But then there’s all these nice examples, I believe, within the guide, of “I don’t know how you explain that.” Some of these items simply appear actually laborious to elucidate. Some of these got here from associates who I’d speak to in regards to the guide and so they’d say, “I have a ghost story,” and all these wonderful tales got here out about issues that simply don’t appear to make numerous sense. There’s issues like that that go away you sort of questioning, and also you don’t actually know the way to clarify them.

I additionally assume it’s far more enjoyable to consider than not. It’s enjoyable to consider and to hope. There’s one thing good about that. I have a look at it like, “Wow, you saw a ghost!” That needs to be an thrilling second! [You] now know that there’s one thing else, and that ought to deliver nice peace, understanding that when [you] die, it’s not simply over and also you’re not only a mass that will get dumped right into a field and fed to worms or one thing. That’s comforting! I believe there’s sufficient tales that make me assume that there’s one thing to it nonetheless, and I choose to consider that.

Chasing Ghosts: A Tour of Our Fascination With Spirits and the Supernatural by Marc Hartzman is out on September 28. You can pre-order a duplicate here.

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