Leo Ruickbie - A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting: How to Investigate Paranormal Activity from Spirits and Hauntings to Poltergeists

Described as a young Van Helsing in The Ghost Club Journal, Dr Leo Ruickbie has been investigating, writing about and experiencing the darker side of life from Black Masses to haunted houses for most of his professional career. He has a Ph.D. from Kings College, London, on modern witchcraft and magic, and is the author of Witchcraft Out of the Shadows, Faustus: The Life and Times of a Renaissance Magician, and A Brief Guide to the Supernatural, as well as being published in Fortean Times, Paranormal magazine and academic journals. His work has been mentioned in the media from the Guardian to Radio Jamaica, and his expertise has been sought by film companies and the likes of the International Society for Human Rights. He is an Associate of Kings College and a member of Societas Magica, the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, the Society for Psychical Research, the Parapsychological Association, the Gesellschaft fr Anomalistik and the Ghost Club. Visit him online at www.witchology.com and www.ruickbie.com .

Praise for A Brief Guide to Ghost Hunting:

Dr Leo Ruickbies latest book achieves a very rare feat indeed: it succeeds in being scholarly, informative, meticulously researched and very absorbing. If you have ever considered setting out to find a ghost you could do no better than take your information from the pages of this fascinating work, which is a textbook example of how it should be done. Brian Allan, editor Paranormal, sub-editor Phenomena magazines

Very useful and informative, extremely well researched and fluently written. Enjoyable and intriguing as well as exceptionally interesting. Lionel and Patricia Fanthorpe, President and First Lady of the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena (ASSAP)

I have always admired Dr Leo Ruickbies comprehensive expertise in the paranormal. A Brief Guide Ghost Hunting delivers more than most other ghost guides combined. Rosemary Ellen Guiley, author of The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits

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Constable & Robinson Ltd.
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First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2013

Copyright Leo Ruickbie, 2013

The right of Leo Ruickbie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library

UK ISBN: 978-1-78033-826-2 (paperback)
UK ISBN: 978-1-78033-827-9 (ebook)

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First published in the United States in 2013 by Running Press Book Publishers, A Member of the Perseus Books Group

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US ISBN: 978-0-7624-5077-0
US Library of Congress Control Number: 2013931824

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To Bill and Bernice who made it all possible.

To Antje, Morgana and Melissa who make it all worthwhile.

FORMS or APPARITIONS. If seen, DO NOT MOVE AND ON NO ACCOUNT APPROACH THE FIGURE. Note exact method of appearance. Observe figure carefully, watch all movements, rate and manner of progression etc. Note duration of appearance, colour, form, size, how dressed, and whether solid or transparent. If carrying camera with film ready for exposing, quietly snap the figure, but make no sound and do not move. If figure speaks, do not approach, but ascertain name, age, sex, origin, cause of visit, if in trouble, and possible alleviation. Inquire if it is a spirit. Ask figure to return, suggesting exact time and place. Do not move until figure disappears. Note exact method of vanishing. If through an open door, quietly follow. If through solid object (such as wall), ascertain if still visible on other side. Make the very fullest notes of the incident.

Extract from Harry Price, The Alleged Haunting of B Rectory: Instructions for Observers (London: University of London Council for Psychic Investigation, 1937), p. 5.

It has been my great pleasure to meet many interesting living people through the course of this book and I would like to thank those who helped with my research, beginning, in alphabetical order, with Emil DeToffol, James Gilberd of Strange Occurrences, Ross Hemsworth, Vernon Holt, General Secretary of the Ghost Club, Michelle and Dave Juliano, Andy Matthews, Alan Murdie, President of the Ghost Club, Shawn Porter, James Tacchi, Technical Officer of the Ghost Club, Noah Voss, and Beth Watson, Director of Spookers. Thanks are also due to those who took part in the Ghost Hunting Survey; unfortunately time and space prevent me from listing everyone by name here, but my appreciation is heartfelt, nonetheless.