Do you have some sort of strange activity occurring in your home? Perhaps belongings are walking off by themselves, or perhaps you are having strange visions. Assuming, of course, that you do not have a rabid drug problem or just a spotty memory, there is another possibility-ghosts.
According to Joshua P. Warren, founder of the League of Energy Materialization and Unexplained Phenomena Research team, ghosts are very real and do, in fact, \haunt"" abodes. In his new book, ""How to Hunt Ghosts-A Practical Guide,"" Warren walks the reader through all aspects of the ghostly experience, from finding the haunted entity to tracking and studying it.
This book is going to appeal to a lot of different people. For those who believe in ghosts, this is an excellent opportunity to learn information about the paranormal-and for those who do not, this is an opportunity to read some interesting arguments for the existence of spirits.
Alternately, this book offers an excellent opportunity to laugh at some of the stranger people and beliefs floating about.
To give Warren credit, this book is fairly well-structured. Warren does a good job of laying out his arguments but then spends too much time backing them up with anecdotal evidence.
According to this book, ghosts have been acknowledged since at least Biblical times, according to Job 4:15, which says, ""Then a spirit passed before my face, the hair of my flesh stood up.""
Ghostly appearances have been documented since those times and today a staunch group of folks still believe in their existence. Rumors about certain celebrity homes being haunted occasionally make the news, and television shows dealing with paranormal activity, such as The X-Files, abound and are wildly popular.
For people interested in hunting ghosts, this book lays out a very clear plan. For more than 44 pages of minute detail, Warren covers every possible necessity for today's ghost hunter, from the obvious flashlight (""Most times you will find yourself in dark places,"") to the less obvious strobe light, tone generator, electromagnetic field meter and infrared meter.
An electromagnetic field meter is apparently essential for a good ghost hunter, and there are two types to choose from. Warren suggests the meters that read AC currents are best for finding and ruling out artificial fields, but also says that DC meters are best for locating phantoms.
These meters can cost upwards of $250. Ghost hunting is apparently not a cheap hobby.
After this very thorough shopping list for ghost hunting, Warren spends several pages discussing the ways that ghost hunters can go about finding ghosts. Ouija boards, pendulums, automatic writing and psychics all offer supposed insight into the netherworlds, although Warren does suggest that one do a thorough background check or demand proof during a reading to make sure a psychic is not a fraud.
While Warren usually does a strong job of covering every topic in depth, he fails in one particular area. The chapter titled ""Protecting Yourself From Ghosts"" is very short and glossed over, and does not seem to offer any solution for the disturbing predicament of being chased by an angry ghost. The seeming solution to every threat is to not show fear. As Warren writes, ""Novice ghost hunters also wonder if specters can follow them home. This rarely happens. But in those cases where it does happen, the individual must verbally command the spirit to leave his or her home."" Duh.
According to the author, those who suffer from hauntings are frequently weak people to start with, and he also says angry entities rarely have the strength to do much harm.
But ""rarely"" is not the same as ""never."" In worst-case scenarios, such as the infamous Bell Witch case, an evil spirit tormented a man to death. John Bell reportedly suffered from a host of strange afflictions in the late 1800s, including a painful swollen tongue, until he expired. However, Warren is quick to insist these cases rarely happen.
It seems that a lot of the information in this book is pretty clich?? ghost-hunting stuff. If there had been less rambling about the need for toilet paper on a ghost hunt and fewer stupid statements like ""Ghost hunting can be draining. Be sure not to neglect your basic need for food and liquid,"" this book may have had more space for interesting information.
Chapters in the beginning of this book covering topics like telekinesis, telepathy, collective ESP and synchronicity offer some insight, but are woefully short, considering the depth and complexity of these topics.
It also seems Warren did little or no research for this book, instead taking common knowledge and elaborating upon it, and then ruining the effect by adding dumb statements advising people to do things like turn off their cell phones before a hunt.
For those interested in learning about ghosts, the information about paranormal activity is mildly entertaining, but not deep enough to really educate. This book imparts very little new information, but will probably be good for a few laughs.
