When I think of The Doors, especially Jim Morrison, a few things come to mind: the music, the on-stage antics and the impact they left on music, but not practicing voodoo.

In Jim Morrison ‘Ceremony:’ Exploring the Shaman Possession, Adriano Rubio attempts to piece together the mysteries surrounding Morrison’s death and his belief in the occult, but all she does is smash pieces of a puzzle into each other that don’t belong together.

Instead of focusing on what the title suggests – dealing with Jim Morrison’s interest and practice of shamanism – the author goes into various cults, religions, myths and hoaxes that have absolutely no relevance to Morrison.

Rubio only focuses on Jim Morrison in the final chapters, indicating that there was not enough information about his involvement with the occult to actually write an entire book about it, so she needed to fill huge gaps of space.

Although there might be proof that Jim Morrison dabbled in the occult, the author only raises speculation, and cannot guarantee the reader cold, hard facts. She spoke with band member John Densmore, but he only hinted of the vaguest possibility that Morrison practiced any dark arts.

When she started to talk about the possibility of Jim Morrison being “zombified” and that the only way to prove Morrison’s corpse is truly his own would be to exhume the body, I got a little scared.

If you want to experience Jim Morrison, listen to one of The Doors’ albums, just don’t read this book.

Contact ALL correspondent Nicholas DiSabatino at [email protected].