Dummies - Ghost-Hunting for Dummies

Ghost-Hunting For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com

Copyright 2020 Zak Bagans

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019952067

ISBN 978-1-119-58475-9 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-58476-6 (ePDF); ISBN 978-1-119-58480-3 (epub)

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 4
3. Chapter 7
4. Chapter 8
5. Chapter 9
6. Chapter 11
7. Chapter 12
8. Chapter 13
9. Chapter 19
10. Chapter 20

Thank you for picking up this book. I hope that it will be useful to you as a common sense guide to paranormal investigation. It wasnt written to say that I have all the answers when it comes to the paranormal. No one really does. We are all learning and discovering as we go, but I hope that you can learn something from the research that I have done over the years and make what it contains work for you.

This book was written to provide a general reference for paranormal research and ghost-hunting. In a field that is always changing, it can be difficult to offer a specific guide. The field of paranormal research has been around for more than 170 years, and its always changing. Many tried and true methods of investigation have been replaced by scientific equipment and new ideas, but I have tried to combine these things to help you as you search for compelling evidence in your own research.

This book has a very simple goal: Provide the reader with the essential information needed to conduct research into ghosts and the paranormal. But this goal is deceptively simple because the outcome of such research is not simple at all. In fact, it can be so complex and confusing that many people walk away from the paranormal field every day, scratching their heads and wondering if all the work and effort is really worth it. Trust me, it is!

Just remember that this is a guide that was written for you, the ghost-hunter. Obviously, I wont have all the answers about ghosts until I am one myself, but I can pass along the knowledge, ideas, and theories that have been gained by my own past experiences with hauntings. My hope is that you, as the reader and the researcher, will be able to take away at least one small piece of what you find in this book for yourself and use it in your own investigations. Youll be able to see what I have done and, hopefully, learn from what I have discovered over the years. If you manage to gain some new ideas and discover some new methods from this book, then I can consider it a success.

I should also point out that the ideas in this book are my own, based on my own years of research. Paranormal investigators, no matter how experienced, do not uniformly agree on what makes a place become haunted or even about what ghosts actually are. Everyone has his or her own ideas on the subject, and mine are certainly not meant to be the final word on it. Im not afraid to state my opinions, though, and am willing to run the risk that you may not agree with them. Thats fine by me you dont need to agree with what I have to say. I just hope that youll form your own opinions and at least find some things here that you can put to work for yourself.

So, what can you expect in the pages ahead?

In this book, I make some assumptions that very well may be foolish, about you, your ghost-hunting experience, and your goals.

• You are fascinated with ghosts, hauntings, and the unexplained and may even have some experience with paranormal investigation.
• You have patience and a determination to learn more about the subject matter in hopes of increasing your knowledge about the best ways to investigate the unknown.
• You are willing to approach the subject with an open mind.
• You are willing to devote time and energy to gathering authentic evidence of the paranormal and doing everything you can to rule out natural explanations for anomalies before assuming they are paranormal.

Throughout the margin of this book are small images, known as icons. These icons mark important tidbits of information: