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by Dennis William Hauck 
There is No Better Guide to Hauntings in the United StatesThis is a comprehensive guide to the haunted places of the United States, listing over 2000 locations. By "haunted places" the author, Dennis William Hauck, simply means "a place where events occur beyond our ability to explain them." In this list the author includes locations frequented by ghosts, Bigfoot and his kin, lake monsters, lizard men, unexplained sounds, extraterrestrials and UFOs, as well as energy vortices, sacred sites, petroglyphs and earthworks. The emphasis of this work, however, is on ghosts as spirits of the dead--most of these feature historical information which might supply an origin for the uneasy spirit-or replayings of past events, as well as other supernatural entities such as poltergeists and demons. Other strange phenomena are included; my favorite is the "White Clads": strange white-robed figures carrying candles, seen in rural areas of North Dakota in 1976. Hauck only briefly states the binding premises of this book in the introduction. I agree with the author's declaration in the second paragraph there, in which he states that "hauntings occur (and often recur) in specific places" and that "haunted events are beyond our logic and occur in ways that challenge our perception of reality." I must, however, question the validity of his statement that "events that do not belong in our space and time can nonetheless take place there." This assertion begs the question: how does anyone know what belongs in our time/space? If such events challenge our perception of reality--if we cannot trust our senses, in other words--how is anyone able to come to such a conclusion? These matters are partly answered by the concluding sentence of this paragraph: "A paranormal experience reveals dimensions of the universe not ordinarily available to our senses." If by "not ordinarily," Hauck means in ways that challenge our current understanding of time and space, I completely agree. At this point in our understanding of those phenomena which we call "hauntings," however, we cannot declare with any certainty whether or not these events belong here: they may very well belong here, but, like the very small organisms which live alongside us, are occult to our senses under conditions which we have come to call "normal." The bibliography is exhaustive, with 233 sources listed, but accordingly creaks under its own weight. This book begs to be republished on CD-ROM, so that page numbers for the books referenced could be included, or that the reader might know how many items were taken from a given source. Hauck's dedication is apparent in the number of entries which have their origin in the author's personal investigations, files, and correspondence, but given the importance of this research, the results of his inquiries should be published elsewhere, in a more complete form. The author has limited his bibliography to recently published books which are likely to be available to the public, rather than to cite the original source of information on the haunting: again, such data would fit nicely on a CD-ROM, which is not subject to the same spatial restraints as a book, and which would not be of interest to any but the archivist and the specialist in any case. None of these slight flaws detract from the usefulness of this guide. It is one of those books which my wife Fayaway and I carry with us always on our trips across the country: we have visited many of the places listed here, and have found the author's information to be always accurate and complete. It is furthermore very well written and entertaining. This guide is highly recommended for those interested in armchair travel, as well as those planning an actual journey to haunted places. |
