Nonjudgment Day: Ghost Story

AMERICA is said to be in the early stages of a spiritual revival, a third Great Awakening, and conservatives smile at this, hoping it will mean fewer abortions and more Republicans in Congress. But here’s a countervailing cultural fact for you which relates to spirits if not to spirituality as the term is conventionally defined. Right now, according to the New York Times, the number-one best-selling hardback non-fiction book in the country is one that explains how to contact the dead.

Talking to Heaven: A Medium’s Message of Life after Death, by James Van Praagh, has been a best-seller for nine weeks. Dutton published it originally in a run of 10,000 copies but has since printed 600,000 more. And that was before Mr. Van Praagh appeared on Oprah. (He turns out to be a beefy guy who looks like an ex-cop but sounds a bit like Richard Simmons.)

AMERICA is said to be in the early stages of a spiritual revival, a third Great Awakening, and conservatives smile at this, hoping it will mean fewer abortions and more Republicans in Congress. But here’s a countervailing cultural fact for you which relates to spirits if not to spirituality as the term is conventionally defined. Right now, according to the New York Times, the number-one best-selling hardback non-fiction book in the country is one that explains how to contact the dead.

Talking to Heaven: A Medium’s Message of Life after Death, by James Van Praagh, has been a best-seller for nine weeks. Dutton published it originally in a run of 10,000 copies but has since printed 600,000 more. And that was before Mr. Van Praagh appeared on Oprah. (He turns out to be a beefy guy who looks like an ex-cop but sounds a bit like Richard Simmons.)

About the Author

David Klinghoffer

David Klinghoffer, a former literary editor at NR, is a senior fellow at Discovery Institute and co-author of The Gift of Rest: Rediscovering the Beauty of the Sabbath, and other books.