I’ve never really believed in ghosts. Movies like The Sixth Sense and The Ring scared the living daylights out of me, but I never considered them to be serious pictures of reality. I’ve long had a strong belief in the supernatural, but I’ve always believed that “hauntings” and “mysterious events” could each be chalked up to rational causes.
However, Holy Ghosts (Tarcher, 224 pages, hardback), a new book by Gary Jansen, has made me question some of my prior assumptions. The book is somewhat of a spiritual memoir, describing a year-long haunting Jansen experienced and the religious journey that resulted.
A good Catholic, Jansen was unsure whether to consider his haunting to be legitimate. But as he was researching a book on Catholic spirituality, he stumbled across some writings on ghosts from theologian Fr. John Hardon. Surprisingly, he found that the Church doesn’t outright reject ghosts. In fact, he discovered quite the opposite: the Church not only accepts the existence of ghosts, but has a rich history of ghostly phenomena.
Jansen learns how St. John Bosco encountered the ghost of his best friend, who visited Bosco to assure him that he had been saved. Many other Saints, like Alphonsus Liguori—bi-location—and Teresa of Avila—levitation—exhibited mystical events unexplainable by natural causes.
Jansen also brushes upon St. Ignatius of Loyola and his “discernment of spirits”, which helped him determine whether his supernatural encounters were good, harmless, or evil.
Holy Ghosts is an engaging story from cover to cover, in part because Jansen is such a gifted writer. He writes very descriptively, and he’s also a master of suspense, ending most chapters with some kind of shocking cliff-hanger.
Despite his engaging style, though, Jansen uses a good deal of vulgarity. Holy Ghosts probably wouldn’t be the best book for a younger reader or those who have distaste for such language.
Also, many readers—including me—may be skeptical toward some of Jansen’s proposed hauntings. Weird creaks, unexplained doorbell rings, and random noises from talking dolls seem odd, but they can easily be explained by a myriad of natural causes. Overall, though, Jansen’s hauntings do include some truly head-scratching events that are not so easily explained.
While I wouldn’t put it on any must-have list, Holy Ghosts is an enjoyable, light read—a good nighttime book for the cold, winter months. If anything, Holy Ghosts is one of the rare books that approaches ghosts from a Catholic perspective. Whether you’re a believer or a skeptic when it comes to ghosts, Holy Ghosts will at least have you questioning things that go bump in the night.
Bonus Content
- Read the book’s Introduction (PDF)
- Reviews by Julie at Happy Catholic and Jeff at The Curt Jester