book on hunting ghosts

[Aristotle]

Hey all, (my first post btw)! I was just wondering if anyone has bought the book "How to Hunt Ghosts" by Joshua P. Warren. It arrived in the mail a few days ago and I began reading it. I think its quite funny as the author tries to approach the subject of investigating the paranormal from a scientific and Philosophic perspective. Too often though the author begs the question or seems to ignore Occam's Razor. For example, the author divulges his theories on why ghostly occurences, such as strange lights, moving objects, and chills occur. He gives a very plausible reason for the occurences (I won't say what his theory is....you'll have to read the book to find out :P). He then says that this is how ghosts interact with the world although the theory of how these phenomenon occured seemed much more plausible. Plausible enough to exclude the ghost part all together, lol. It is definitely an interesting and entertaining read though and clarifies many ideas of the paranormal which I did not know (and didn't really need to know for that matter ).

[Nucular]

Welcome, Aristotle!

I don't know that book, but I've got similar. I used to lap up what they said, and be jolly impressed with the scientific veneer they tend to decorate their techniques with. But I find that a good old sceptical reading of them often shows that the techniques they describe, whether intentionally or otherwise, seem to be designed to help you convince yourself you've found evidence of ghosts, without actually considering other options.

For example, sometimes they advise that you take lots of photos, and study them later, looking for any odd shapes, 'orbs', things you didn't notice, etc. Obviously if you get a clear picture of a headless horseman that wasn't there when you took the picture, then all well and good, but usually - and I've done this - you're poring over poorly-lit photos with odd light sources taken in dusty, cluttered rooms, and you see ambiguous shapes all over the place!

Same with EVP - leave a tape recorder going while you creep round a creaky old house in the middle of the night, and when you play it back, you're going to hear odd noises.

Buy expensive over-sensitive thermometers and other sensing equipment, you'll get fluctuations.

A quick perusal of Warren's ghosthunting company website shows they plug these techniques and more. Their photos page is populated by orbs and mists, the former discussed ad nauseam on this board and in Randi's newsletter. Nothing especially remarkable there that I saw.

But having said all that - ghosthunting is the most fun! Personally I like nothing better than to go with a couple of mates to a reputedly haunted place, and get the crap scared out of me till I think I'm going to have a heart attack. But maybe I'm just strange.