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Here is a synopsis of Eric’s book, When The Dead Talked and The Smartest Minds in the World Listened. According to Live Science, one out of every five people in the United States currently believes it is possible to communicate with the dead. They are in good company: Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Leo Tolstoy, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, and Marie and Pierre Curie all concurred.
In fact, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, confidence in communication with the dearly departed was so prevalent that it became regarded as a religion! At its peak, there were more Spiritualists in the United States and England than Mormons or Christian Scientists.
Second only to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, Spiritualism sparked the greatest controversy of faith in the half-century of its prominence. Though few historians seem to know of it, Spiritualism is not only crucial to an understanding of both past and present, but also to the inner workings of the human animal.
One of modern history’s most revealing stories, Spiritualism comprises feats that stretch credulity to the breaking point and investigations that often produced equally staggering results.
As brilliant men and women are introduced in When the Dead Talked, their enduring accomplishments are highlighted. It becomes ever more startling to contemplate the fact that, once upon a time, so many geniuses devoted themselves to the study of such an oft-derided topic.
Eric’s Takeaways.
1: “It is possible that we use the word “reality” incorrectly. We use it as a singular. But it might be plural: “realities.” This is the conclusion at which some of “the smartest minds in the world” arrived after their meticulous studies of the possibility of an afterlife.”
2: “The reason I love what I do; i.e., write social history, is that the research it requires enables me to continue to educate myself at the same time that I try to transmit what I have learned to the reader in an artistic manner, one that stimulates, and satisfies, the reader’s own quest for knowledge.”
3: “Perhaps more than anything else, I hope that what readers take away from When the Dead Talked . . . and the Smartest Minds in the World Listened is a greater open-mindedness than they previously possessed, a greater willingness to consider possibilities that they previously thought of as impossible.”
Eric Burns.
To begin with, Eric was a correspondent for NBC News, appearing regularly on NBC Nightly News and the Today Show. He was named one of the best writers in the history of broadcast journalism, joining such luminaries as Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Charles Kuralt, and David Brinkley. He is also the winner of two Emmys for television news commentary. Eric has written 15 books, two of which received the highest award given by the American Library Association.
In Closing.
Eric will be sharing what he loves about his career and why he loves writing. You will find him very engaging.
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