Review: When Ghosts Speak by Mary Ann Winkowski

When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits by Mary Ann Winkowski. Foreword by James Van Praagh. © 2007 Grand Central Publishing. ISBN 0-446-58118-6. Hardback. Paranormal. 238 pages. $24.99 US.

Summary
Mary Ann Winkowski is a devout Catholic, a happily married woman, and a suburban mom like any other, except for one thing: she talks to dead people. Mary Ann discovered this gift when she was a very young girl and spent her early years attending local funerals with her grandmother to communicate with those who had died. Thus began a lifetime of helping the departed make peace with whatever keeps them from crossing over. Mary Ann shares with us fascinating stories of her many paranormal encounters, as well as advice on how to recognize when you're not alone.

Review
The book opens with Part One: Listening to Spirits which tells of Mary Ann's inspiring journey, covering the fifty years she has been conversing with the earthbound spirit world.

Within Part Two: Understanding Earthbound Spirits, Mary Ann does a brilliant job at dispelling ghostly myths, tackling topics like energy sources used by earthbound spirits, eerie 'super powers' (the full moon does have an effect guys!), cold spots, whether or not earthbounds have special access to higher knowledge, the dangers of summoning ghosts, to where ghosts congregate (surprise, it's not cemeteries!) and detecting earthbounds.

After dispelling myths, Mary Ann takes us on a touching journey through the White Light, explaining that "the white light that comes to people when they die serves a very practical purpose" and that this white light stays with a deceased person for "72 to 80 hours after the last memorial service," in fact most will attend their funeral. She goes on to say that she has no idea why some crossed over spirits will come to living relatives in dreams and why others are horribly hard to get a hold of. From the White Light, we are lead through chapters entitled, 'Why Some Souls Stay Behind,' 'Funerals, 'Murders and Suicides, 'Children,' 'Animals,' and 'Evil Spirits.' You will uncover all sorts of informational gems as to why some people become earthbounds upon death and why some do not.

While the aforementioned section deals mainly with ghosts on their own, Part Three: Living with Ghosts delves into what happens when the world of the living and the dead collide. Here we are given chapters dealing with how people attract earthbounds, signs that you are not alone, dealing with ghosts and negative energy such as curses (which a lot of people mistake as hauntings).

While this book contains great information as mentioned above, it also contains some not so good information. In Chapter 10, "Asking For Trouble", Mary Ann mentions that the use of metaphysical tools and activities like tarot cards, pendulums, automatic writing, casting spells, séances and Ouija boards will cause the attention of earthbound spirits and eventually cause your house to attract a few. I have to some only about half of this is true. Tarot cards and pendulums are powered not by an outside source but from your own subconscious or higher self. You are not calling on anyone outside of you to help, therefore I do not believe it is dangerous to use them. I've used them for the past five years and I've not attracted any earthbound spirits from them. Now casting spells, séances, automatic writing and Ouija boards will grasp attention indeed, which is one reason it is very important to spiritually protect yourself before doing these activities. Also know what you are doing before you do it; dabbling is not a good idea.

She also mentions how entering into a meditative state or practicing "dark witchcraft" will attract earthbounds as well, but I think this is a rather faulty Christian attitude as neither meditation and witchcraft are dark practices, it is the ethics of the practitioner not the practice itself that determines its darkness. Just as one might claim to be a Christian and do bad things, so can anyone else. This is a cliché that everyone needs to learn to get over.

Her chapter on 'How to Deal with Ghosts' is very good, covering a wide range of protection available from earthbounds, but if you are really serious about this, I would suggest getting a book on psychic protection and spiritual cleansing to delve deeper into the topic and accompany her information. Her ritual for removing a curse or negative energy is also a gem of a find!

Some of the photographs which are in the book are very believable whilst some are highly unlikely and seem like something a skilled Photoshop user, like myself, could easily create. I'm not saying they aren't real, or that they are, but I have to remain skeptical on something don't I? ;)

Overall, this book is fantastically informative and sheds a completely new light on the world that resides within our own, but don't pick up this book expecting the stories to play out like a Hollywood film, because you will be disappointed (hint: real ghosts aren't like those in the movies).

About the Author
Mary Ann Winkowski has been seeing and talking to ghosts for over fifty years. She is a renowned paranormal investigator and consultant to the hit show Ghost Whisperer.