How to Hunt Ghosts: A Practical Guide

this guide should be in every investigator's library and is the one book that every amateur investigator should start with before jumping into the field. some criticize it as being merely a cursory overview; fact is, the author sticks to the necessary (and factual) while pruning out the speculative hogwash typical of other authors in this subject area. he does delve into some of the prevailing theories of the field and in doing so discusses quite of bit of what i believe to be sensationalized garbage (while seemingly abandoning his "hard science" stance), nevertheless this is THE paranormal investigator's bible; it will give you the tools and knowledge you need to conduct solid investigations.

This is by far the very best out of the "How to Hunt Ghosts" books in circulation! It is clear that Mr Warren is knowledgeable on this topic and has provided not only terms and definitions, but case histories as well - even a simple guide on building your own home-made EMF Meter! This book is essential for both the beginner and professional ghost hunter / paranormal investigator!

I am a professional investigator (police) and I investigate ghosts as a hobby. The book is as well written as any law enforcement training textbook I have read and a great guide for people just starting to ghost hunt. The only drawback is the book doesn't provide many resources for the equipment. (...)

July was interesting this past year(2003). Went to Savannah, Georgia, and stayed in a haunted bed and breakfast inn (The 17Hundred90--main ghost named Anna Powers), and then went up to Bay Street to get locked overnight in a haunted pub with 13 other lunatics (two of them from the Savannah MorningNews. a features writer and a photographer). The Inn was interesting. "Something" walked out of a bathroom for us that night, sat down with a creak in a creaky chair, waited a few, and then creaked its way back across the creaky floor and re-entered the bathroom. Cool, huh? Well the inn had NOTHING on the Moon River Brewery & Pub!!!!! The basement was spook central. Try a water spigot that would defy you and turn itself back on in front of you after you turned it off. Not once. Not twice. THREE times. Then there's the storeroom where you could plainly hear the sound of chairs dragging across the floor. Open the door, flick on the light, and...nothing. But the spook DID like chairs. A most frightening incident was walking from one room to the next and passing some restaurant chairs and bar stools stacked against a far wall and having one of the chairs just launch itself into the air and smash to the floor right in front of the person behind you, the nice little old lady from St. Augustine, Florida. And when I say smash, take that literally. Broke itself upon the floor. Sorry, bubbas, you can't manage that kind of force with funhouse wires, so you can forget that little bit of self-delusional debunkery. Besides. There WEREN'T any wires. We checked. And lastly, there was the stupendous event of a huge crashing noise that shook the building and had three and four-person investigative teams rushing up and down stairwells and bumping into each other, because EACH group "heard" the crash as coming from the floor either ABOVE or BELOW their own. NOBODY heard it on THEIR floor. And nothing was EVER found as a cause for the noise. And all these doings were looked at with tri-field meters, thermographic sensor guns,digital cameras, night vision viewers, tape recorders, motion detectors, and other kinds of paraphernalia covered by Joshua P. Warren in his book "How To Hunt Ghosts". So, am I shilling for Warren? No. Wasn't one of his investigations. It was worked by The American Institute of Parapsychology (AIP), out of Florida, and co-cordinated by Savannah Walks, Inc. Fact is, though, everything Warren says in his book matches up with the ideas and methodologies used by AIP in Savannah. Dovetail matches. His assessments of equipment squares with theirs and his concepts of the nature of spirits and hauntings matches up. To my mind Warren has a solid piece of work here and things I have heard about his professionalism in the past lead me to place him up there with Loyd Auerbach, Troy Taylor, Richard Southall, Dave Oester, or any of the other "name" investigators of "things that go bump in the night". This is a good book and it deserves a wide readership. Buy it

Joshua Warren's book is a fascinating look into real-life ghost hunting and paranormal investigation. It is clearly written, and the fact that Warren has really been doing this kind of research for a long time comes through on every page. I heard about the book on Coast to Coast AM with George Noory (Warren has been a guest numerous times, with both Noory and Art Bell), and ordered the book the next day. I got my copy before the release date (pleasant surprise) and found it even better than it had sounded. It has lots of practical advice on equipment to use in hunting ghosts from very simple things most people can use up through sophisticated cameras and scientific equipment. But it also has a section on different kinds of ghosts and hauntings, including some that aren't really ghosts but have other kinds of explanations. It is also filled with lots of anecdotes and examples from Warren's work that makes it a really interesting read. I imagine that its going to get a lot of negative reviews from people who put down anything having to do with the paranormal, but if you have experienced ghostly things yourself or at least have an open mind, give it a try. Warren's approach and the kind of information he presents is definitely not the usual new-agey spiritualism or hokey "ghost-hunting" book by amateurs. Warren is a pro, and it shows. Buy it.