Dean Russell - Ghost Hunting Guide

Dr. Dean Russell

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

2012 / Dr. Dean Russell

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NOVELS:

Bayou Savage, Guitar Ghost Fighter: The Resurrection

Bayou Savage, Guitar Ghost Fighter: The Ghost Wars

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H as something ever happened to you that could not be explained? You know that something spooky must have happenedsomething so weird that the only explanation possible was that it was paranormal. That happens to me all of the time at my day job of quality auditing (just joking!). However, many people have weird things happen to them, at one time or another, and are curious as to what it is that is out there. If you are one of those people who would like to take it to the next step and have a paranormal adventure, then this book will help you to organize and conduct an exciting and safe adventure.

When people think of ghosts, they think of the paranormal, the unexplained. There is a plethora of ghost shows on television with stimulating exposure to this exciting world. There have been reports of ghosts since the beginning of humankind. This fascination with the paranormal is part of our culture. Ghost hunting has been an adventure draw for a long time. For example, H omers The Iliad includes a scene where the ghost of the warrior Patroclos appeared to his friend Achilles (more than 3,000 years ago) and recorded seeing a ghost in chains.

A few years back, I wrote two science fiction books (with the help of fellow musician and great friend Chase Walker) about a guitar player who fights evil ghosts. The Bayou Savage: Guitar Ghost Fighter series story line revolves around a man who works as a quality engineer and motivational speaker, who inherits a guitar from his ghost-fighting father. The guitar is special, unique, and activates upon the presence of evil ghosts. Bayou fights evil ghosts to save his family and the future of humankind. Bayou, the reluctant hero, is called into a paranormal site to do a ghost investigation with the understanding that there might be some real paranormal activity. Unfortunately, Bayou has a streak of bad luck and battles some very evil ghosts and the investigations take some interesting turns. You get the picture. Being a guitar player and quality auditor made the books fun and easy for me to write.

On a personal note, my father is a hell of a guitar player and the books were inspired by our years of playing together, musically, and the humor that bonded our relationshipmy father with his Harry Truman supervisor type of personality and me with my Bill Clinton provider type of personalityin terms of the Meyers-Briggs Inventory, his personality type being Extravert-Sensor-Thinking-Judgmental (ESTJ) versus my type being Extravert-Intuitive-Feeling-Judgmental (ENFJ).

Tools like the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) are designed to help adventure leaders attain a greater knowledge of themselves as well as others. The ability to interact effectively with fellow ghost hunters may be the difference between success or failure in an adventure. Effective interaction starts with an accurate perception of oneself. The MBTI gathers information that quantifies how we see ourselves and presents this self-perception in a comprehensive detailed report.

Ghost hunters are most productive in an environment that is in harmony with their own natural personality. By understanding what personality the present environment requires and their natural self, adventure leaders can remain comfortable and productive.

Specific subjects the MBTI covers are:

general personality characteristics

different personalities value to the organization

checklist for communicating with different types

donts on communicating with different types

MBTI lists individual preferences under these four pairs of traits:

Extravert versus Introvert (E or I)

Sensor versus Intuitive (S or N)

Thinking versus Feeling (T or F)

Judgmental versus Perceiving (J or P)

There are 16 personality types in the MBTI. For example, the Extravert-Sensor-Thinking-Judgmental (ESTJ) adventure leader might be like Jason on Ghost Hunters. The Extravert-Intuitive-Feeling-Judgmental type might be Grant from the same show.

All of these things in my lifemy science fiction writing, guitar playing, and MBTI familiaritymade me think about how a person with a quality auditing background would really look at the paranormal. That is what led me to writing this quick and easy to understand guide for your use.

The American Society for Quality (ASQ) defines quality as a collection of powerful tools and concepts that are proven to increase customer satisfaction, reduce cycle time and costs, and eliminate errors and rework. Quality is a two-sided coin: one side is customer service; the other side is the absence of defects. To me that has always meant that everything needs to be done rightnot just better, or improved, but done right the first time. Whatever you are going to do, you need to have a plan and to educate yourself to always be better.

I have been on adventures with people with no plan. Sometimes I had a good time; sometimes it was a choreography of pain. I have found that if I have an outcome that I want, it's better to have a plan. Quality training was the one place where I could populate my thinking with techniques that felt comfortable and secure, mainly due to the front-end loading involved in the planning aspect of any operation. At first I used it at work, then I started using it in my music, and finally in ghost hunting. I chose predictability versus instability. I marinated my poor brain with insights of how to become an adventure hero. After years of practice, I melded this system to my brain, especially the part about making problems hard to happen (then going for totally eliminating them).

The world of the paranormal is full of very bright people who investigate the unusual and the unexplained. All I want is to turn them into rebels with a pause.

Notice that this book is not meant to about the ghosts themselves; it is about how to organize your adventure to investigate ghosts. Adventure organizing tools have a long history, beginning with ancient pioneers as they organized their great travels and constructions. Ghost hunting and adventure organizing tools are mutual alliances. Using adventure-organizing tools in this pursuit is logical. It provides a logistical framework to support and organize your hunt. When investigating ghosts (the paranormal), you need to have a quick, organized, objective in-and-out project. Ghost hunting is about gathering evidence, analyzing the evidence, and giving a verdict while having an adventure.