Mary Ann Winkowski is "the real life Ghost Whisperer and consultant on the top 30 CBS show Ghost Whisperer."  She discussed about how she discovered her gift: she can only see the spirits who linger around and don't go to the Light, then she helps them to go into the Light.  She got trained by her grandmother on how to help them.  She cannot see the ones who have crossed over to the Light.  Even if the ghost speaks a foreign language, she is still able to understand what the ghost is saying.

In When Ghosts Speak, the author brought out to light some truths about ghosts to help us understand more about earthbound spirits: 

- The spirit attends its own funeral.

- Ghosts are not ugly or scary as Hollywood movies portrayed; they look normal like the rest of us; they still have desires which they cannot satisfy because they don't have a body anymore.  These desires include going to a movie, going to see a show, and/or drinking alcoholic beverages.

- Why some spirits stay behind:  some are still attached to materials such as a beautiful vacation home they once had, jewelry, or cars; a spirit who once was famous at a work place such as Hollywood and is still attached to that work place; spirits who used to have a fun work place and still want to perform an old job such as singing a romantic song on stage; some spirits want to seek revenge or pursue justice; some spirits are nosy and don't want to leave; and some are jealous lovers and want to follow the love life of the one they left behind.

- Young spirits are different;  spirits of young children rarely come back.  They are not attached.  They don't have greed.

- Ghosts stay after unnatural deaths, such as in cases of murders and suicides.

- Pets are loyal, even after death, they still come back, and hang around their master.

- Evil spirits are rare, but they are real.  Even spirits of "bad" people-murderers, rapists, pedophiles, etc.-are welcome into the Light when they die.

- Dark Spirits are evil, they "are not of the Light", they "do not come from the Light.'  They were never human.   Black magic (dark witchcraft, Ouija board process, satanism) brings back Dark Spirits, if not performed correctly.  The author advises:  do not dabble in black arts, do not play with Ouija boards of any type, do not perform spells intended to summon a spirit to grant you greater power or wealth or fame.

In the last chapter, "Living with Ghosts", Mary Ann Winkowski discussed about how people attract earthbound spirits, how to identify spirits around us, how to deal with eartbound spirits or how to protect ourselves from their influence.