Tricks of ghost hunters revealed

[Loki]

If you told someone that your occupation was ghost hunting, what kind of response would you expect to get? An interested "Oh, really?" Wide eyed disbelief? A rude "What in the bloody farking hell are you smoking?" Joshua Warren, president and founder of the League of Materialization and Unexplained Phenomena Research, has probably gotten a lot of the latter.
Warren opens Ghosts by stating "ghosts are real" and then spending an awful lot of time defending that statement. Unfortunately, quite a bit of his defense is questionable, as it uses Matrix-esque questions about what reality really is, whose perception is "right" and whose judgment you are supposed to trust.

Another irritating loophole in Warren's writing is his tendency to make statements and then back them up using personal stories that start with "one time..." or "once I was..." While these personal stories are generally interesting, they don't serve to back up Warren's scientific statements.

Another small thing that doesn't really help to improve Warren's credibility is the "Praise for how to Hunt Ghosts" page. While all of the quotes on that page are definitely praise, they all come from organizations that study ghosts or unexplained phenomenon. Maybe he couldn't get book critics to review his work, but regardless, one would hope that people besides other ghost hunters would have something nice to say about his book.

So yes, all of the aggravating stuff in Ghosts comes early. However, after you get past his incessant, and largely useless, defense of his work, Warren shows a lot of depth in the subject matter. He points out that traditional ghosts, i.e. deceased spirits, aren't the only kinds of "ghosts" that exist, and then goes into pretty extensive detail about the types of ghosts that he encounters. Among these are entities, which are ghosts of things once living; imprints, ghosts of inanimate objects such as pirate ships; warps, rifts in space, such as the Bermuda Triangle; and poltergeists, ghosts that make things move around.

The second half of the book deals with what to get and what to do if you want to become a ghost hunter. Though it sounds trite, he suggests that the best times to find ghosts are around Halloween and at night. However, he gives good reasons and even some sound and reasonable explanations for both.

Some of the things on the to-get list are pretty interesting, such as infrared lights, digital cameras and first aid kits. Warren gives detailed explanations of why you need each of these objects. He also understands the need for important documentation and even has suggested forms for this in the appendix.

While it takes some time for it to manifest itself, Warren really is a professional. He clearly takes his work seriously, and would like to see the field expand. His book gets off to a shaky start, but sets itself straight after a few dozen pages. If nothing else, Ghosts provides an interesting look into the supernatural world. Halloween is right around the corner, so you might want to give this one a read.

For more information, you can visit Warren's Web site at http://www.lemurteam.com.