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Yankee Ghosts: Spine-Tingling Encounters With the Phantoms of New York and New England
Here is an ever-expanding cast of ghosts at Clinton Court, Hungry Lucy and her Revolutionary soldier, the Hanged Drummer and Quaker Lady of Harvard, the mystery of Henniker's Ocean-Born Mary House, pirates, skulduggery, and stolen gold.
202 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1986
About the author
Hans Holzer
209 books163 followersHans Holzer, whose investigations into the paranormal took him to haunted houses and other sites all over the world, wrote more than 140 books on ghosts, the afterlife, witchcraft, extraterrestrial beings, and other phenomena associated with the realm he called “the other side.” Among his famous subjects was the Long Island house that inspired The Amityville Horror book and film adaptations. Holzer studied at the University of Vienna, Austria, and at Columbia University, New York, earning a master’s degree in comparative religion. He taught parapsychology at the New York Institute of Technology. Holzer died in 2009.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 2, 2016
I wouldn't call this book a huge standout, but if you're interested in the paranormal it's a solid read. I grew up near the places where several of the stories take place, so it was also some interesting history for me. It feels a bit dated and sometimes I felt as though the author relied too heavily on his own personal opinions, but for the most part I enjoyed it.
November 14, 2007
Scared the shit out of me growing up! Started my fascination with ghosts!
May 2, 2017
I love his books-- read a lot of them when I was a teenager.
May 25, 2024
THE PARANORMAL WRITER LOOKS AT AMERICAN “HAUNTINGS”
Hans Holzer (1920-2009) was an Austrian-born, American paranormal researcher, and author of more than 100 books.
He wrote in the introductory section of this 1991 edition (the book was originally published in 1966), “When the first edition of [this book] appeared some years back, and I toured the lecture and television circuit, people would ask---ghosts in New England? Why, aren’t they mainly to be found in ancient English dungeons and castles Europe?... They assumed that England was so full of specters that few remained for that shining, modern, up-to-the-minute United States. There are, in fact, many more Yankee ghosts than British wraiths, as this book will show. This is as it should be, for our country is so much larger than England and the opportunities for tragic death are so much greater…
“As a parapsychologist, I make a practice of sending restless ghosts to their appropriate homes beyond the veil. Sometimes they go at once. Sometimes they linger and I have to return to the haunted place once or twice to make the dismissal stick. Ghosts are people… governed by emotional stimuli… Once I have established the identity and problems of the ghost, I explain the true situation to him or her, and gently but firmly send them from the house to join the loved ones who have gone before them. My methods call for the presence of a sensitive person to pick up… tangible material about a haunted house that can then be examined for validity…
“What is remarkable about Yankee ghosts is their human character; ghostly New Englanders have lost none of their bite and individuality from their years in the flesh, even if they are now operating from a different level of experience… I hope that you will also understand the ongoing need to relate to those who, for one reason or the other, are caught in the web of their own unresolved emotions at the time of physical death, who need… your help to move on into the wider world of spirit.”
He recounts a session at which Sybil Leek ‘went under,’ and observes, “Although the mansion itself no longer stands, the carriage house in the rear was not part of Clinton Court, a reconstructed apartment house on West Forty-sixth Street. How could Sybil Leek, only recently arrived from England, have known of these things?” (Pg. 71)
He observes, “I … thought about Mrs. Roy Josselyn’s background---the fact that she was Princess of the Micmac Indian Tribe. I remembered how frequent psychic experiences were among Indians, who are so much closer to nature than we city-dwellers.” (Pg. 85)
He states, “Most people ‘pass over’ without difficulty and are rarely heard from again, except when a spiritualist insists on raising them…The dead are always among us, make no mistake about that. They obey their own set of laws that forbids them to approach us or let us know their presence except when conditions require it. But they can do other things to let us feel them near, and these little things can mean a great deal when they are recognized as sure signs of a loved one’s presence. Tragedies create ghosts through shock conditions, and nothing can send them out of the place where they found a sad end except the realization of their own emotional entanglement… The person who refuses to accept peacefully the transition called death, and holds on to material surroundings, becomes a ghost when these feelings of resistance and attachment become psychotic. Such persons will then regard the houses they lived and died in as still theirs, and will look on later owners or tenants as merely unwanted intruders who must be forced out of the place by any means available.” (Pg. 91-93)
During another session, “I had heard enough by now to call in Sybil Leek, who had been outside waiting patiently for the call to lend her considerable psychic talents to the case.” (Pg. 114) Later, “I then asked Sybil Leek, still deeply entranced, answer my questions, without awakening. This is actually switching from deep trance to clairvoyant trance in the middle of the séance, but Sybil has extraordinary powers of the mind and is a disciplined medium.” (Pg. 139) Still later, “I called Sybil back to her own body, so as not to give some unwanted intruder a chance to stop in before she was back in the driver’s seat, so to speak.” (Pg. 169)
This book will interest those interested in ghosts, poltergeists, etc.
Hans Holzer (1920-2009) was an Austrian-born, American paranormal researcher, and author of more than 100 books.
He wrote in the introductory section of this 1991 edition (the book was originally published in 1966), “When the first edition of [this book] appeared some years back, and I toured the lecture and television circuit, people would ask---ghosts in New England? Why, aren’t they mainly to be found in ancient English dungeons and castles Europe?... They assumed that England was so full of specters that few remained for that shining, modern, up-to-the-minute United States. There are, in fact, many more Yankee ghosts than British wraiths, as this book will show. This is as it should be, for our country is so much larger than England and the opportunities for tragic death are so much greater…
“As a parapsychologist, I make a practice of sending restless ghosts to their appropriate homes beyond the veil. Sometimes they go at once. Sometimes they linger and I have to return to the haunted place once or twice to make the dismissal stick. Ghosts are people… governed by emotional stimuli… Once I have established the identity and problems of the ghost, I explain the true situation to him or her, and gently but firmly send them from the house to join the loved ones who have gone before them. My methods call for the presence of a sensitive person to pick up… tangible material about a haunted house that can then be examined for validity…
“What is remarkable about Yankee ghosts is their human character; ghostly New Englanders have lost none of their bite and individuality from their years in the flesh, even if they are now operating from a different level of experience… I hope that you will also understand the ongoing need to relate to those who, for one reason or the other, are caught in the web of their own unresolved emotions at the time of physical death, who need… your help to move on into the wider world of spirit.”
He recounts a session at which Sybil Leek ‘went under,’ and observes, “Although the mansion itself no longer stands, the carriage house in the rear was not part of Clinton Court, a reconstructed apartment house on West Forty-sixth Street. How could Sybil Leek, only recently arrived from England, have known of these things?” (Pg. 71)
He observes, “I … thought about Mrs. Roy Josselyn’s background---the fact that she was Princess of the Micmac Indian Tribe. I remembered how frequent psychic experiences were among Indians, who are so much closer to nature than we city-dwellers.” (Pg. 85)
He states, “Most people ‘pass over’ without difficulty and are rarely heard from again, except when a spiritualist insists on raising them…The dead are always among us, make no mistake about that. They obey their own set of laws that forbids them to approach us or let us know their presence except when conditions require it. But they can do other things to let us feel them near, and these little things can mean a great deal when they are recognized as sure signs of a loved one’s presence. Tragedies create ghosts through shock conditions, and nothing can send them out of the place where they found a sad end except the realization of their own emotional entanglement… The person who refuses to accept peacefully the transition called death, and holds on to material surroundings, becomes a ghost when these feelings of resistance and attachment become psychotic. Such persons will then regard the houses they lived and died in as still theirs, and will look on later owners or tenants as merely unwanted intruders who must be forced out of the place by any means available.” (Pg. 91-93)
During another session, “I had heard enough by now to call in Sybil Leek, who had been outside waiting patiently for the call to lend her considerable psychic talents to the case.” (Pg. 114) Later, “I then asked Sybil Leek, still deeply entranced, answer my questions, without awakening. This is actually switching from deep trance to clairvoyant trance in the middle of the séance, but Sybil has extraordinary powers of the mind and is a disciplined medium.” (Pg. 139) Still later, “I called Sybil back to her own body, so as not to give some unwanted intruder a chance to stop in before she was back in the driver’s seat, so to speak.” (Pg. 169)
This book will interest those interested in ghosts, poltergeists, etc.
June 23, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed this literary piece and had the pleasure of working on it with Crossroads Press. A must read!
More suggested reading from the collection are as follows:
* Tales At Midnight
* Windows to the Past
* Astrology
* How to Cope with Problems
* Beyond Medicine
* Speed-Think
More suggested reading from the collection are as follows:
* Tales At Midnight
* Windows to the Past
* Astrology
* How to Cope with Problems
* Beyond Medicine
* Speed-Think
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews