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A History of Ghosts

The True Story of Seances, Mediums, Ghosts and Ghostbusters

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A History of Ghosts

Written by: Peter H. Aykroyd
Narrated by: Jeremy Gage, Dan Aykroyd
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About this listen

Peter Aykroyd spent his childhood watching his family’s parlor séances through the crack of a basement door. Here, for the first time, Aykroyd tells the strange and delightful story that inspired his son, Dan, to make the mega-hit Ghostbusters.

Part history, part family legend, A History of Ghosts starts in 1848 in upstate New York, where the spiritualist craze first began. Aykroyd introduces the listener to notable mediums while telling the story of the development of spiritualism, interweaving a personal history marked by a fascination with ghosts and spirits with the larger narrative about the role the paranormal has played in our culture. Such legendary figures as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini appear - and vanish.

Everyone loves a good ghost story. Successful TV shows such as Medium and Ghost Hunters are proof that our national obsession with ghosts is here to stay. Millions of Americans believe in the paranormal—and even skeptics have heard a bump in the night and suspected it might be something supernatural.

©2009 Peter H. Aykroyd (P)2010 Audible, Inc. Americas Fantasy Haunted Paranormal Ghost Fiction Parapsychology Psychic Extrasensory Perception

What the critics say

"Less a Ghostbusters also-ran than a knowing, historical origin story, this is a smart consideration of the paranormal and a curious artifact of the Aykroyd legacy." ( Publishers Weekly)
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it was an interesting read but focused on seances a lot more than I expected. I also found that when he talked, the start of his sentence would be very loud (especially "A"s in words, like wAtson) and sometimes would almost seem inaudible by the end of the sentence.

Much more focused on Seances than I expectes

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