Holy Ghosts

Or How a (Not-so) Good Catholic Boy Became a Believer in Things that Go Bump in the Night

By: Gary Jansen

Narrated by: Gary Jansen

In this extraordinary true story, the haunting of a Long Island household forces a respected writer and editor to reevaluate the mysteries of life and death as he struggles with the frightening truths of his childhood home and his town’s past. Growing up in Rockville Centre, Long Island, Gary Jansen never believed in ghosts. His mother—a devoutly Catholic woman with a keen sense for the uncanny—claimed that their family house was haunted. But Jansen never found anything inexplicable in how their doorbell would sometimes ring of its own accord or in the mysterious sounds of footsteps or breaking glass that occasionally would fill their home - or even in his mother’s sometimes unnervingly accurate visions of future events and tragedies. Though he once experienced a supernatural encounter in a Prague church as a young man, Jansen grew up into a rationalist, as well as a noted writer and editor.

In 2001 Jansen moved back into the very same house where he had once grown up, to raise a family with his wife. In 2007 he encountered a frightening, full-blown haunting in his home. This was the first episode of a phenomenon that lasted a full year and eventually included unveiling the identities of the spirits who occupied his house, reliving a tragic murder in his hometown, encountering mind-boggling coincidences between local history and episodes in his household; and finally—with the help of Mary Ann Winkowski, the real-life inspiration for TV’s Ghost Whisperer—ridding his house of these uninvited visitors.

Holy Ghosts is not only a gripping true-life ghost story, but a wry and touching memoir, as well as a meditation on the relationship between religion and the paranormal, which are often considered at odds, but which the author shows are intimately linked.

©2010 Gary Jansen (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

“ Holy Ghosts took me into a completely convincing but very different version of reality from the one we live in. It serves as a forceful and fascinating reminder that we do not see the world that is, but only the part we have chosen to see. There are dangers and wonders in the dark, and Holy Ghosts affirms that they are very real.” (Whitley Strieber, author of Communion and The Omega Point)

Entertaining read for the money.

I didn't have high hopes for the book. It was an enjoyable read. I don't regret buying it. I reccomend it.

Excellent Read

i so enjoyed this book and hope the author writes more. i am catholic and learned a lot and actually am inspired to pray more and watch my words.

Listened Twice

I really enjoyed this book. It was very informative in the Catholic aspect and ghosts. Very entertaining and educational. After reading this I had an ah-hah moment where I finally understood the very existence of the supernatural.

A Ghost story from a Catholic perspective

I really enjoyed listening to this book. It tells a good story and the narrator does an excellent job.
Concerning the experiences the author tells I'd have recommend him to contact a Traditional Catholic priest to perform a blessing over the house and to have Masses offered for these souls.

Genuinely Surprised...

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

I gotta tell you. I was looking for a book to creep me out a little. Sometimes that's the "shot in the arm" that I need to get through some days. But this is just not one of those books. Notwithstanding, it's wonderful. The conclusions Jansen draws from his paranormal experiences are faith-promoting, that perhaps in a terribly busy world inundated with routine and monotony, a haunting is perhaps the means through which he might be a believing person. I just think that's beautiful. It's not a black and white concept that many religious people would accept, that a haunting would be a growing opportunity rather than a unfortunate event to be feared. Given that it isn't what I was expecting in any sense, in tone or in message, I give this five stars and whole-heartedly recommend this to anyone.