He relates the story of Joe Fisher, who wrote a book on the subject of “hungry ghosts” and eventually became so ensnarled in the subject that he began to suffer acute dislocation from the day-to-day world and personal relationships. The story does not end well. Read it. There may be a lesson in here for us ghost hunters.

Prescott’s post reminds me a little of the Amy Allan thing – watch out for spirits who wish you ill, she warns her clients frequently, and by the way, you should probably sell your house and move…and they might follow you anyway. But Fisher’s tale may be less about the malevolent designs of evil spirits and more about losing perspective, willfully allowing the line between this world and the next (assuming there is a next) to become dangerously blurred.

I spent many years serving on the board of directors of the International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS). During our meetings I heard far too many stories of the problems NDErs encountered when they tried to tell their near-death experiences to the medical staff. One of the classic stories was a patient who told his doctor about his NDE in front of several nurses. When the patient finished telling his story, the doctor looked up from his clipboard and said, “Don’t think too much about it. It was just fantasy.”

When the doctor left the room, the nurses closed in around the crushed patient and said, “It’s not fantasy. We hear about these events all the time from patients. Doctors like him live in fantasy. They never hear these because they don’t listen to their patients.”

Feast, and ponder….