Ghosts Caught on Film: Photographs of the Paranormal

this book was really entertaining and had some really good pictures and stories. what i like best about it is that it really lets you decide and judge for yourself without pushing you one way or the other, it just gives you the photo and facts. its a really cool book and i have been a big ghost believer for many years and read countless books my whole life on the subject. i keep it on my coffee table because its that cool and every time someone comes over they gravitate towards it. everyone who has looked at it has really liked it and its definitly a great conversation starter :) long story short i reccomend it and think that if you are interested in the paranormal its a great book to have.

I own this book and I found it quite interesting. There was alot of work put into it. I liked it.

I'm always interested in where authors of the paranormal obtained the `Doctor' they like to affix in front of their names. Many times the honorary degree is self-awarded, but this author appears to have come by his Musicology PhD in the time-honored fashion, from the University of Bristol. In his online biography, Dr. Melvyn Willin also lists himself as the Archivist for the Society for Psychical Research. The title of this book is a bit misleading, since along with its ghosts, it also contains photographs of elephant-shaped clouds, various Madonna figures as seen in water fountains and tree branches, Kirlian photographs of leaves, and (one of my favorites) a cat named Tinkerbell who seems to have red lines emanating from her head. In all, "Ghosts Caught on Film" contains around 80 photographs of the paranormal, and I must say that my overall emotion upon viewing the material was one of embarrassment--especially after studying the `Cottingley Glen' fairy photograph that was "championed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes and noted devotee of deductive logic." Sir Arthur even wrote a book, "The Coming of the Fairies" that was published in 1922. After reading Dr. Willin's explanation of how this particular photograph was actually cobbled together, you too will be embarrassed for the creator of the world's most famous fictional detective. The provenance of each photograph in this book is detailed by the author, along with non-paranormal explanations of how the photograph might have been produced. Dr. Willin sometimes makes astounding deductive leaps, as in his description of Tinkerbell, the cat's photograph: "The Egyptians believed [cats] to be sacred, even godlike. We are still not sure how these ancients built the Pyramids [evidently Dr. Willin doesn't watch the History Channel], so perhaps there are other mysteries they knew about cats...and about parallel worlds." Huh? "Ghosts Caught on Film" is by turns jaunty, spooky, silly, tongue-in-cheek, and great fun to read. Most of the photographs are obvious fakes or inadvertent technical boo-boos such as double exposures. The "Disembodied Faces in the Waves" photograph taken in 1924 looks remarkably similar to the famous Viking 1 `Face on Mars' snapped from orbit in 1976. Alas, in 2001 the Mars Global Surveyor revealed the `Face' to be a natural land form, which only proves that the human mind has a remarkable ability to `see' faces in rocks and water. Nevertheless, there are a few pictures in this book that are genuinely uncanny. Check out "Did Freddy Jackson Return?" on page 132 or "The Tulip Staircase Mystery" on page 152 and decide for yourself.

What a great idea putting some of the most famous and not so famous ghost pictures in a book and telling about the origin of them. I really enjoyed seeing the pictures and finding out where they came from. It was very interesting and I think the author did a find job of telling the story behind them without adding to it.

This book earns a great deal of my respect for many reasons. I appreciate the presentation of facts, letting the reader decide what to believe. The layout is beautiful and it makes a fascinating coffee table book. I like that is has some of the most famous and heavily disputed photographs of all time throughout the book . . . some of these are instantly recognizable. I also like that along the left side of each page, Dr. Willin notes if the photograph was ever found to be evidently bogus or if the jury is still out, along with a summary on how the picture came about (and any other interesting theories, possible causes/technologies, quotes/comments from other experts). This book was simply well done and makes a great teaching/research tool . . . truly a collectable. Please note that the photographs in this book are in full color and on quality paper. Dr. Willin also zooms in on specific elements in certain pictures, to make them easier to see and decipher.