Ghostology and Spiritism

A Story by Novram

From the book; "Ghostology, The Naturalistic Philosophy of Ghosts".

William Danmar; was an architect and spiritist, originally from Denmark. He wrote about ghosts and spirituality, in the late 1800s to the early twentieth century. In his book; “Ghostology, Products of Nature, The Naturalistic Philosophy of Ghosts”, published in 1924, Danmar stated that ghosts were natural and not supernatural. The author attempted to explain the existence of spirits scientifically. However he was using knowledge of one hundred years ago and science has come a long way sense then.

William Danmar used some interesting terms in his book;

He equates Ghostology with being modern spiritism, (that is modern from the perspective of one hundred years ago). But today ghostology is more connected to ghost hunting and the study of apparitions and haunted place. Where as spiritism is involved with spirit communications, utilizing mediumship and trance channeling. These are different ideas than in the times of Danmar’s lifetime, a century ago.

Some of the other terms William Danmar used in his book were;

Semi slumber; used in meditation, was like a zen type state.

In haunted houses, he referred to ghosts as ‘spontaneous spooks’. Danmar also called them bodiless mind beings and shades.

Spirited away; was the dematerialization of objects.

And spiritualization; were items like flowers and kitchen utensils that appeared out of nowhere, sometimes falling from the ceiling above.

Danmar said that Shadowland; was the spirit world, netherworld, or ghostland.

‘The Tail of the Earth’; was another book he wrote, subtitled, ‘Location or Condition of the Spirit World’.

According to William, Nirvanology; was the science of death. Spirits would go to seventh heaven and experience ‘soulpeace’.

The author also said that skeptics and debunkers would express, ‘fraudcry’, about suspected fake mediums.

Danmar talked about ether, which the architect referred to as ‘light stuff’ and ‘astral substance’. It is something that fills in space between molecules in the air, where ghosts exist. Spiritual entities he called etherial beings, ( that’s the way the author spelled it).

In the book; “Ghostology, Products of Nature”, William Danmar tells a story about a séance and a philosopher from Germany named Immanuel Kant. The German wrote about metaphysics and immortality. Immanuel died in 1804.

In 1885, in New York, Danmar attended a séance, held by a woman medium. During the session, a man, dressed in a white cover, came out of a closet. The medium’s husband asked the man in white, if he could give them his name? The apparent specter said, “I can’t”, or at least that’s what they thought he was saying. Actually the apparition uttered, “I. Kant”, which was his name, Immanuel Kant, who had died some eighty years before.

The next day, William Danmar looked in a magazine, which had a drawing of the philosopher, Kant, from when he was living. Danmar said that the image was the same man that he had seen during the séance, in the Big Apple, nearly a century after the German’s likeness was sketched. Perhaps a hundred other people, at other similar spiritual events, also identified the same famous metaphysician that was seen by the Danish born author.

Ghostology, The Naturalistic Philosophy of Ghosts, is a good book about the existence of the spiritual world and the afterlife.

Ghostology in the Beginning:

The first paranormal organizations were formed in London England, in the late 1800s. The Ghost Club and The Society for Psychical Research were the first groups of their kind.

In the early days of ghost chasing, these societies conducted investigations into hauntings, as well as attending séances with mediums, and researched psychic phenomena. So in the beginning, these areas were all combined.

Then in the early twentieth century, these different subjects split off into their own fields. Ghost hunting became the realm of modern day paranormal organizations. Mediums and séances branched off into today’s spiritualism and spiritism. And psychic research and ESP, became part of modern parapsychology. The three areas of research seperated into their own distinct subjects. Whilst at the start, they were all combined in early Ghostology.