Michelle Belanger - The Ghost Hunters Survival Guide: Protection Techniques for Encounters with the Paranormal

About the Author

Michelle Belanger has repeatedly appeared on A&Es hit show Paranormal State, in addition to documentaries on HBO, the History Channel, and WE! She writes for paranormalinsider.com and regularly lectures at colleges across the United States. Visit her online at www.michellebelanger.com.

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

The Ghost Hunters Survival Guide: Protection Techniques for Encounters with the Paranormal 2009 by Michelle Belanger.

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First e-book edition 2010

E-book ISBN: 9780378722566

Cover design by Lisa Novak

Cover image Bill Varie/Workbook Stock/Jupiterimages

Editing by Nicole Edman

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Llewellyn Publications

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book is dedicated
to the cast and crew of Paranormal State
for fun times, chilling encounters, and the chance to help ordinary people overcome extraordinary circumstances.
Its not your imagination!

Contents

Portions of this book are based on an actual investigation. A number of details, including names, have been changed in order to protect the privacy of those involved. In addition, the events of the investigation have been dramatized for the purposes of this book. Although I have made every effort to remain true to the spirit of each persons words when telling the story, the conversations that appear in this book did not occur verbatim during the course of the investigation.

From ghosties and ghoulies and long-leggedy beasties

and things that go bump in the night

Good Lord deliver us!

Traditional Scottish Prayer

Shadow Chasers

Ghosts cant hurt you, you tell yourself. Its something you have to recite to the primal part of your brain every time you go out on an investigation. Ghosts are just phenomena to be documented. At best, theyre nothing but energy. There is no reason to be scared.

And yet, its hard not to get the chills on this particular investigation. In the phone interview, the clients warned your team that the place was creepy, but creepy was an understatement. No matter how many lights you turn on in the living room, the place still seems claustrophobic, crowded with shadows. Its like the darkness is an entity in its own right, and its huddling in all of the corners, watching you. For about the fiftieth time that night, you find yourself grateful that your paranormal crew doesnt insist on doing all of their investigations in the dark. You just dont think you could handle this place with the lights out!

The living room, with its cloying shadows, is bad enough. But the real center of the haunting, at least according to the homeowners, is the back bedroom. You can feel a presence waiting there, even before you approach the threshold. This room was where the previous owner lived and died, after the accident made it impossible for him to handle the stairs. He had been a factory worker, and some mishap with heavy machinery crushed both of his legs. He hadnt responded well to his new disability, although according to all reports, he hadnt been the nicest of guys even before the accident. After he was hurt, he spent the remaining years of his life in the back bedroom, stewing over what had been taken away. He was a heavy smoker, and the walls of the room were still stained with nicotine. It was lung cancer that finally claimed him, and the young couple who bought the house after his passing insisted that his black personality had seeped into the walls of that bedroom just as surely as did the stench of his cigarette smoke.

The minute you approach that back bedroom, you can feel ita tingling sensation like a weak electrical current applied to the base of your spine. Nothing registers on your trifield meter, but you know its not your imagination. As clichd as it seems, the sensation makes the hairs on the back of your neck stiffen, and you feel a cold knot of fear form in your stomach. But is it really fear that youre feeling, or is it genuine nausea? Youve been to countless investigations. You know the dead cant hurt you (you keep whispering that under your breath like a prayer). There is nothing to fearand yet you cannot shake those chills and that sour feeling in your gut.

The headache comes without warning. One moment, youre fine, and the next, it feels like someone is driving an ice pick into your brain. You havent had a migraine since you were a kid, and there were no warning signs leading up to this pain. What on earth is going on here?

You can feel a malevolent presence all around you. The stench of stale cigarette smoke clogs your nostrils as you push farther into that back room, and the old mans hatred and frustration is an almost palpable weight pressing against your skin. You start feeling dizzy and a little weak in the knees. Its the adrenaline, right?

For perhaps the hundredth time, you remind yourself that ghosts cannot harm the living. But as the headache rages, youre starting to have doubts. If the spirit of this angry old man is somehow causing your headache, what can you do about it? If ghosts can actually reach out across the Veil to attack the living, how could you even begin to protect yourself?

How, indeed?

Ghost Hunters Aplenty

Ghost hunting has practically become a new national pastime. With the popularity of shows like A&Es Paranormal State and SciFis Ghost Hunters, it seems that everybody wants to chase the unseen. New teams of paranormal investigators seem to crop up every week, and even college and high school students are getting in on the act, organizing ghost hunts at public locations or offering to document hauntings in private homes. Most of these groups are familiar with investigative procedures, and theyre usually smart enough to take safety precautions when they go chasing shadows in the night. Its a matter of common sense to bring flashlights and extra batteries in order to make certain that no one is stuck in an unknown house without light to guide their steps. As a further precaution, most groups use the buddy system, making certain that no one ventures into unknown territory alone. But these are all physical considerations. How many ghost hunters know how to adequately protect themselves from paranormal threats?