Death-Related Experiences Record Type: Review   ID: 764
Phantoms of the Isles: Further Tales From The Haunted Realm Marsden, Simon
This is Marsden's second book of British haunts. It describes 51 sites, each illustrated with a black and white photograph. In the Introduction he says that he has never tried to prove the existence of ghosts, but sees his role as that "of an independent folklorist, collecting and recording the experiences and stories of the individuals concerned with such events, in the hope that by doing this I can help to inspire and restore a little imagination into a world that daily is being dispossessed of any mystery through the relentless and consuming march of science and technology" (p. 6). He refers to the strong positive reaction to the subject of haunts he has received from people, saying that he often feels that "because of my obviously sympathetic views on the subject, my presence acts as a catalyst, releasing a wealth of supernatural experiences that people have often kept hidden away inside themselves for various reasons—fear of ridicule by others, perhaps, or the inability of the human brain to assimilate and interpret such unusual and previously unknown information—and it is fascinating to witness their overwhelming sense of relief at being able to reveal these profound and personal secrets" (p. 8). Marsden's tentative conclusion about ghosts is "that it is the ghosts within us that crave to return and these powers of the supernatural that subconsciously haunt our every living day, and that therefore to deny the existence of ghosts is to reject man's spiritual being, his true self" (p. 9).
Publisher Information:	Exeter, Devon, England: Webb & Bower, 1990. 128p. 1 fig; 105 illus

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