"Do you believe in ghosts?" It is not an easy question to answer. Strange things most certainly do seem to happen, well authenticated and accurately recorded: but exactly how or why -- that is another story. Abbot Wiesinger, who died shortly after this work was completed, was a distinguished Cistercian theologian who had done much research into the various fields connected with this fascinating topic.

In the first part of the book the Abbot develops the Catholic theory that in the state of innocence such as Adam enjoyed, man led a spirit-like existence assured by the preternatural gifts. Man remianed a spirit after the Fall, however, and the gifts, though lost, have left their traces. Thus, although we can attribute a great many so-called psychic happenings to fraud or to the devil, there might be other casues as well.

In the second part of the book, he examines in a scientific way occult phenomena of a kind that have been well authenticated. Even those readers for whom the more abstruse theories based on theology are a trifile discouraging, will find here much to learn from the accounts of such things as spiritualism, mystical experiences, telepathy, second sight, witchcraft.

This book sheds a new light for the Catholic on his approach to occult phonmena and is a remarkable achievement in relating Catholic theology to modern psychological and psychical research.