4 out of 4 stars
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Life after death is perhaps the greatest mystery of our lives. Reincarnation, heaven and hell, ghosts living among us, any combination of those, something we haven't even imagined or absolutely nothing at all, the possibilities are endless. How to Talk With Spirits by June Ahern helps answer those questions (and many more) the best way possible - by presenting the reader with information, helping them find their own answers and frequently reminding them to stay skeptical and not just believe anything, even the things in this book, simply because they're widely believed.
How to Talk With Spirits is a nonfiction guide for exactly what it sounds like - communicating with spirits. Spirits here typically include both spirits and ghosts (the difference, June summarizes, is essentially that ghosts are spirits that remain on Earth), but also includes the possibility of picking up messages or signals from others who are alive. The guide is just shy of 100 pages via Amazon's information (it was 61 in the PDF I read), but those pages are filled to the brim with information equivalent to similar books double the length. Despite having so much information, the book doesn't ever feel boring - this is an insightful guide, not a dry textbook.
Before the book really kicks off, we're given an introduction that gives us a history of the author, June. In 1970, at 19 years old, she was a passenger in a vehicle during a car crash that threw her through the windshield. She sees a woman in white surrounded in light and actually died for 20 seconds. Ever since, she's been able to see and hear dead people and identify things about people without ever having met them before. Since then she's gone ghost hunting, led and been a part in seances and passed all sorts of messages to the living.
Following the introduction, the book is broken into 12 chapters, the first chapter being the longest. This chapter briefly covers a history of ghosts and then answers a wide range of frequently asked questions. These answers cover a wide spectrum of information, and while there is a bit of repetition, it's only because this portion is made in a way that the reader can read only the answers to questions they're interested in without missing anything when skipping portions. From this point forward, chapters explain about spirits and ghosts - both the good and the bad - as well as how to communicate with the good and protect oneself from the bad from preparations to best practices and creating the best, most likely situations for success. These chapters also go into details about methods for speaking with spirits alone or in different forms of seance, acting as a medium, going on ghost hunts and all sorts of other tasty tidbits of knowledge concerning spirits. As she gives information, June frequently references articles and books by other authors, as well as her own interesting experiences and even a YouTube video of one of her own ghost hunts. The last chapter is a simple ESP quiz she's created - just a handful of simple questions that will make you think about what you've seen and felt, then guides you with your results a bit.
I've actually read a couple similar books in the past, but How to Talk With Spirits is my favorite thus far. It uses the terminology properly, but never feels condescending or confusing; it expresses strong beliefs and opinions but never tries to force them upon the reader, instead encouraging safe experimentation and making one's own judgements; it teaches without preaching. Despite the fact that the book needs quite a bit of editing work done and it's slightly repetitive, as some of the information is covered in multiple questions and/or further in the book in more detail, the book definitely deserves 4 out of 4 stars. I can't suggest it to anyone who has closed their minds to the possibility of an afterlife or being able to speak with the dead, but anyone the least bit curious or interested in the topic should give the book a read.
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How to Talk With Spirits
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I hope I will have a chance to read this book. It might overcome my fear. Great review. Congratulations to June Ahern on such a well-written book.
