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The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts: A Riveting Investigation Into Channeling and Spirit Guides

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Throughout the world, groups of persons gather around human “channels” -- persons who enter a trance state and whose vocal cords produce discourses ostensibly originating with beings who claim access to high levels of knowledge and spiritual wisdom -- “guides,” “masters,” “Brothers,” angels, aliens, and so forth. Many participants in such groups come to completely trust the guidance given by these entities, and to make major life decisions based on their guidance and prophetic utterances. Yet few participants in such groups know much about the history of such manifestations, or have any idea how often the guidance given by these seemingly benign voices has produced disastrous results in the lives of those who heed them. Often, those who are ignorant of history are condemned to repeat it.

HUNGRY GHOSTS is Joe Fisher’s engrossing account of his personal experiences with channeled spirit-guides. A few hours spent reading HUNGRY GHOSTS would be a very good investment for many who are currently receiving or following “channeled” communications. It might, in fact, save them a world of grief. Unfortunately, some of those who most need to read this book may pass it by, because they already “know” that the particular voices on which they rely emanate from a uniquely high or undistorted source, or they are sure that they cannot be mistaken about the benevolent nature of the voices that guide them. If they read the book, however, they may realize that such confidence is often misplaced, and that misjudgments about such matters can have severe consequences.

During the 1980s, Fisher -- a Canadian who had already published THE CASE FOR REINCARNATION and other books on metaphysical subjects -- became heavily involved in a group centered around a trance-channel, "Aviva Neumann" (a pseudonym). Neumann was avowedly a skeptic about discarnate beings, but when she entered a hypnotically induced trance, a number of individual personalities (called “guides”) manifested through her, offering personal guidance and metaphysical teachings. One of the personalities, “Filipa,” convinced Fisher that she had been his soulmate over various incarnations, most recently in 18th century Greece. Fisher became so emotionally attached to this personality that it contributed to the breakup of his marriage.

Eventually, Fisher decided to gather material to write about the guides. First, he set up sessions with a half-dozen other mediums in the Toronto area, to see whether their “guides” would give him consistent information about his purported incarnation with Filipa and other matters. He was disappointed to find that, except on points on which he clued them in, the information provided by the various discarnate voices was entirely inconsistent.

Fisher also decided to try to validate the claims of several of the "guides" who manifested through Neumann regarding their most recent incarnations, which included a World War II British bomber pilot, a soldier killed in World War I, and a 19th century English sheep farmer. Fisher spent many months eliciting detailed information from these entities about the times and places of their purpoted births and deaths, the locales in which they lived, the names of associates, and so forth. (He also tape recorded Filipia speaking, at least in a fragmentary way, in what proved to be an obscure Greek dialect.) Fisher then made several trips to Europe, reviewing records and interviewing persons who might have knowledge of the claimed previous personalities. Fisher’s account of his careful investigations is fascinating reading, which I will not spoil for you here. Suffice to say that Fisher’s findings disturbed him greatly, and so did the reactions of the “guides” to his discoveries. Even more disillusioning revelations followed.

Many others have been similarly manipulated by channeled voices, but few have written such candid and detailed accounts of their victimization. Fisher’s personal account is the heart of this book. Beyond this, Fisher devotes a couple of chapters to reviewing material from the scriptures of major religions and various writers on psychic matters about the dangers of relying on channeled communications. (The term "hungry ghosts" in the book's title is drawn from a warning found in THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD.) These chapters are a short and somewhat superficial sketch of a vast subject, and in my view some of the “authorities” Fisher cites are unworthy of trust, but the discussion is nevetheless quite worthwhile, particularly for those without previous exposure to such material.

Particularly instructive is Fisher’s account of how a Montreal-based yogic group headed by Swami Vishnu Devananda was nearly destroyed in 1977-79 when a group member began to channel an entity who identified himself as the group's revered founder, Sri Swami Sivananda (1987-1963). Even though Sivananda's own writings had explicitly warned against channeling, Vishnu became convinced that the communicating entity was indeed the beloved departed guru, convinced by the speaker’s (if you'll pardon the expression) dead-on phrasing, intonation, use of Sanskrit, apparent clairvoyance, apparent healing powers, etc. Soon the group was meeting nightly to receive the master's wisdom. The results were regrettably typical: “With protracted deviousness, the invisible presence deluded its audience into believing that they were the chosen Children of Light. Dire global predictions were made and, ultimately, the group was surged to stockpile food and weapons in readiness of the advancing breakdown in social order.” Vishnu belatedly realized that the group was being manipulated by a clever and malevolent imposter, but many group members refused to accept this.

But if you’re still sure it can’t happen to you, then you can afford to skip this book.

To fully understand The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts (1989), it is important that readers know that author Joe Fisher committed suicide about the time this Paraview Press edition was issued in 2001. According to Paraview's website ("Troubled by personal problems - as well as by the spirits he claimed to have angered in writing The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts - Joe Fisher took his own life on May 9, 2001"), Fisher's tragic suicide resulted from late complications involving his investigation into the world of "channeling and spirit guides," which makes the book's dedication ("This book is dedicated to my dear mother, Monica, who has always insisted that demons do exist") all the more ominous.

The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts recounts Fisher's fraternization over a number of years with a diverse group of people who meet weekly to "channel" the disembodied "guides" who speak to them through a non-professional, fatally-ill trance medium. Eventually coming into verbal contact with his own personal "guide," "Filipa," a Greek woman who claims to have been his devoted lover in a former life, Fisher slowly becomes emotionally dependent on their apparently sincere and forthright communications. Fighting paranoia as he discovers that "Filipa" seems to know his every thought and action and is even able to intervene in his daily affairs, the author sets off to England and Greece to prove to himself that "Filipa" was in life who she claims to be in death.

The Siren Call Of Hungry Ghosts is a disturbing book on many levels, not the least of which is Fisher's initial failure to establish any sort of sanity-preserving rational guidelines to help him discriminate between, understand, and classify his perceptions, insights, and experiences.

Though Fisher had written two earlier books on the subject of reincarnation, and appears to have humbly considered himself somewhat of an expert and skeptic, readers will readily discern Fisher's amazing lack of objectivity, as well as his broad credulity and emotional desperation as his experiences with "Filipa" devolve from the surprising and inexplicable to the harrowing and destabilizing. The book is full of indefinite suppositions like "throughout recorded history, many people have been sensitive to an accompanying presence in their daily lives" and "humanity has always been attended by invisible beings," which make it clear that bedrock intellectual ballast was a quality the author lacked. As a result, Fisher seems headed for serious trouble even before the events of the book begin, especially since "gullible" is an adjective the author feels applies only to other channeling enthusiasts. Sadly, though familiar with the work of William James, Carl Jung, and Julian Jaynes, Fisher never seriously considers the dynamic role human psychology may play in the complex channeling phenomena.

Since the author was clearly experiencing a remarkable series of extraordinary events, readers may find it difficult to sympathize with his literalizing desire to hold the "discarnate" presences absolutely at their word, as if the content and nature of their pronouncements were his to command. As the book progresses, the author's "need to believe" becomes increasingly frantic, barely concealing an unsubtle will for power that Fisher fails to acknowledge or discipline.

Addicted to "Filipa" and the romantic fantasies he has spun around her, confused, and manipulated on all levels by an increasing variety of "entities," Fisher pays a heavy price for his hunger for "self-knowledge," preoccupation with the dubious notion of "eternal love," and needy willingness to place his emotional and mental welfare wholly in the trust of apparent unknown super - normal agencies. Obviously, Fisher should have questioned whether his fervent desire for an all-powerful and transcendent guardian figure did not disguise his own unresolved parental complexes.

Fisher did realize that his interest had become an unhealthy obsession, but rather later in the game than readers will. By that time, he was moving unsuccessfully from channeler to channeler, attempting to prove that "Filipa" could manifest identically through different mediums, or that other entities could blindly identify her as his true "guide," and thus offer some evidence of her objective reality.

In one bizarre episode remarkable for its audacity, Fisher flies to England in hopes of obtaining an audience with a newborn infant who he believes to be the reincarnation of "Ernest," one of the disembodied personalities whose given history has proven to be false. Meanwhile, the author's human relationships fail, and he finds that "no matter how hard I tried, I could not shrug off a cloying sense of contamination which could neither be pinpointed or explained. Life had rarely been so fraught with uneasiness."

The book's last chapter and newly-added epilogue find Fisher wiser, paraphrasing Goethe ("Whatever liberates our spirit without giving us self - control is disastrous") and Jung ("We die to the extent that we fail to discriminate"), but still anxious, paranoid about the "invisible" forces around him, unsure of the order of things, and fearful that the retribution of the "spirits," his "unseen enemies," may lead to his demise.

The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts is an intelligent book that Fisher partially intended as a warning to others; it is also a sad and educational commentary on human fallibility, hubris, recklessness, and the tragedy that can arise when "the abiding human need for greater meaning in life" goes awry.

As a long time student of the so-called paranormal, I wish I could give it TEN stars. The book is indeed riveting - both because of the fascinating subject matter, and the author's incisive, highly intelligent yet crystal clear, writing style.

When boiled down to the essence, it's the story of one honest, self-aware man's sad disillusionment, on both a personal level and a more universal one. Not only does the author's own "guide" (supposedly the spirit of a woman with whom he had a relationship in a previous life and to whom he has become very attached over the course of three years of channeled communications) prove to be a fraud, but so does every single "guide" (some "attached" to members of the author's own channeling group, others "belonging to" mediums he meets in the course of his research) he investigates.

And yet, each of these so-called guides is clearly possessed of personal information about his or her "charge," as well as a wealth of background information that would substantiate the life each claims to have led - IF only the author could have located the associated birth, death, marriage, and/or military records for any of these entities. This exposure of these "guides" as hoaxers truly raises a lot of troubling questions, which the author is ultimately not afraid to face and then closely examine for readers' illumination and, perhaps, own disillusionment.

This book sheds a bright, clear, unbiased light on the channeling phenomenon and, in my opinion, presents strong evidence for its rejection as a genuine means of communication from the type of highly evolved and humankind-loving spiritual guides their channelers claim to be in contact with. As such, I believe it's simply invaluable.

When I began reading this book, I simply could not put it down, and I ended up staying awake all night reading. Quite simply, it is riveting. A seriously ill woman with no interest whatsoever in occult or religious matters is put under hypnosis by a neighbor, in an effort to relieve some of her pain. Surprisingly, while she is under, her "guide" reveals himself, and begins a highly philosophical dialogue. It seems the woman, unbeknownst to her or anyone else, is an excellent channel of those from the other side. An informal group gathers around her, and in time they each meet their guides through her, who all seem to know extraordinarily personal information about those gathered. A rapport quickly develops between the guides and the members of the group, and the guides regale the members with accounts of former lives spent together, the nature of earthly existence, the karmic ties being played out among the members, etc. Sometimes the guides give information on the guides' own most recent past lives. The information is highly detailed, including place-names, names of people, specific landmarks in obscure places and times, etc.

Joe Fisher, one of the group members and the author of this book, wants desperately to have some sort of tangible and objective proof that the information coming from the guides is verifiable and factual. His quest takes him around the world, and into the realm of a kind of ghostly smoke and mirrors, where, in every case, the evidence is highly compelling and accurate...and yet genuine confirmation is *just* beyond Fisher's grasp. His journey also takes him into the realm of other channels, and their specific entities, some quite well-known. What he finds is both tantalizing and even mind-boggling.

The implications of the author's discoveries are far-reaching, regarding the reality of earthbound souls, the true origins of channeled entities (despite the entities' own self-proclaimed origins), the smokescreens that channeled entities use, and the possible reasons behind it. If you are at all interested in "A Course in Miracles," the Abraham books, the Seth books, the Michael books, Ramtha, etc., I strongly advise you to read Joe Fisher's "The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts" first. As other reviewers have noted (accurately, in my opinion), this book truly is one of the most important books on the subject of New Age phenomena; it is a pivotal and important work and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Siren Call of Hungry Ghosts is a spell binding paranormal detective story, elegantly written, and as
haunting and irresistible as its title implies. The implications of what British paranormal investigator and writer Joe Fisher discovers, at the apparent cost of his life, are staggering, and have such profound implications for all inhabitants of this particular plane of reality that as over the top as this may sound, this book may be one of the more important ever written.

The title capsulates, in perfect microcosm, the subject of the book and also the effect of the book on the reader...
at least this reader. This book is itself a rabbit hole, a rabbit hole with a certain suction, an undertow pulling you in as the author is pulled into an ever more high stakes involvement with the phenomenon.

Joe Fisher experiences the classic pitfall of the paranormal researcher. He begins as an observer, but becomes ever more obsessed and affected, even over-powered by the object of investigation.

This is the sort of book that has an irresistible allure like an over ripe fruit hanging lowly on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a fruit I found myself reaching for at the very first moment I heard mention of the book's title.

Essentially, this book pulls back the veil on the channeling and spirit guide phenomena and compels you to look, through a glass darkly, at evil in one of its more beautiful, complex, seductive, ingeniously manipulative forms.

While it is dangerous to be unaware of such dark possibilities and manipulative entities, it may also be dangerous to cast your attention in their direction. Attention is not just internal, it is also a beacon visible to others, and not all of those others are visible to us.

In case I've been too luke warm in my praise of this book, let me add that it has intense entertainment value to read, finely crafted sentences, perceptive details of people and places, observations that are nuanced and multi-layered, a narrator who earns his reliability as a witness even as he descends into the most unreliable of circumstances. The flowing succession of events and realizations has a haunting, gothic effect on the reader, like a Palantir that compels and obsesses your attention, but without excessively distorting your view. And if that wasn't enough praise to make this book shimmer darkly in your mind's eye, and compel you to read it
with the obsessive attention it deserves, I don't know what else to say....

A rarity - A book on the subject thoroughly investigated by a professional reporter with no axe to grind and with a passion and zeal that may have partly ended up costing him his life.

After reading all 3 of his books I only wished I had the chance to buy him a cup of coffee and thank him for his body of work.

Religion, in promoting its ideas of good and evil, has left us with some rather simplistic and limiting concepts. We expect information coming from "the otherside" to be either "of the devil" or "of God." This well researched book beautifully illustrates that "spirit guides" are probably neither and instead have very human motives which are every bit as self serving as our own. They seem to hang around to serve their addictions, just as many of us do. Using very human forms of manipulations and gile, they will try to live through us if we let them.

This is much much more than a simple debunking of false mediums. By the end of the book you begin to questions the whole of our spiritual universe and perhaps even see religion in a different way. Who were the voices that spoke to the prophets? Why is it that religions have been reponsible for so much bloodshed through the centuries?

As you read through this book you come to know Joe Fisher as an exacting research journalist who continually does battle with his own idealism. It is sad that he commited suicide a few years after writing this. Unfortunately his own liberating words, that we are here to serve life and not death, did not save him. I am reminded as I read this that the great psychic, Edgar Cayce, did not relie on a guide to read past lives and was able to look at the records himself. He also spoke of the dangers of dealing with discarnate entities. If he could access so much knowledge by simply tapping into his higher mind, why do we need these interlopers? The message in this book should not be forgotten. Read it COVER TO COVER...the last letter at the end is especially thought provoking.

I want to confess up front that I haven't read this book-regardless of that, I would like to point out that Fisher wound up jumping off of a cliff in 2001, in spite of his convictions that suicide was never justifiable. You have to wonder how much the dealings with "spirits" had to do with his suicide. The moral of his book seems to be that people are better off not communicating with "spirits", and I would imagine that his suicide makes point more profoundly than anything that he wrote would. Having said that, I'm ordering this book and I plan to read it immediately.

With all our 'advances', and history to learn from, why are we still imprisoned on planet Earth ravaged by poverty, disease, and wars, and looking Armaggedon in the face every day, instead of 'Star Trek' exploring the universe in space ships ? Read Joe Fisher's book about Hungry Ghosts, and realize why his book is more important to humanity than the Bible, Koran, Talmud, and Hindu Vedic Texts combined, THE most important book ever written. (Thank you Joe Fisher, Be at Peace).