Rich Newman - Ghost Hunting for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Photo By Rich Newman

About Rich Newman

Rich Newman (Tennessee) has been investigating the paranormal for over ten years and is the founder of the group Paranormal Inc. He is also a filmmaker whose first feature film, a documentary called Ghosts of War, will be released in 2011. His articles have appeared in Haunted Times and Paranormal Underground. Learn more about his investigations at www.paranormalincorporated.com.

Copyright Information

Ghost Hunting for Beginners: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started 2011 by Rich Newman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any matter whatsoever, including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2011

E-book ISBN: 9780738726960

Book design by Bob Gaul

Cover art Ghost: iStockphoto.com/Nina Shannon
House: iStockphoto.com/Sean Nel

Cover design by Adrienne Zimiga

Editing by Ed Day

Interior Photos Library of Congress,

Paranormal Inc. & Rich Newman

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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Manufactured in the United States of America

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Human Experience

The Investigation

Audio

Video

Photography

Environmental Monitoring

DICE

Creating a Paranormal Group

Suggested Gear List

Investigation Step-by-Step

You are probably standing in the middle of a bookstore with this book in your hands and asking yourself, Why should I buy THIS ghost hunting book? With so many different investigation styles and authors to choose from, what makes Ghost Hunting for Beginners THE tome to purchase? Well, Im glad you asked

First off, this book was written with beginners in mind. Definitions are given, concepts are explained, and step-by-step instructions are included with every technique (even the more technical aspects of reviewing evidence and using various types of software). Over the years, I have worked with a lot of investigators who lack computer expertise (including co-members of Paranormal Inc.my investigative group in Memphis, Tennessee), so I understand the frustration that comes with learning how to properly use a lot of new gear and computer programs. Because of this, I have learned how to break down this information so that anyone can understand.

The second reason you should purchase this book and take it home with you (come on, the coffee is cheaper there anyway, right?) is the approach of this book. While its perfectly fine to believe in psychics and/or a God in the Heavens, the best way to investigate the paranormal is with proven, scientific methods. Besides the fact that this is the only method that will allow you to present actual evidence to a client, your friends and family, or the paranormal community in general, it also doesnt require you to have any special abilities or beliefs. Learning the methods within this book will put you on the path of the true, objective investigator.

Though there are quite a few other reasons I could list to encourage you to add this book to your ghost hunters tool chest, the best reason I can give you is this: experience. Everything written here has been field-tested numerous times. Everything. When I talk about my methods of interacting with a spirit, I have done them. The specific pieces of equipment covered in this book are in my cases of gear. Many years of investigations in places like the Lemp Mansion in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, have proven that these methods work. And they will work for you!

Its one thing to watch paranormal investigators on television or to read about a particular haunting in a book; its quite another to actually step into the middle of an investigation and to gather evidence on your own. But dont sweat it youve got Ghost Hunting for Beginners in your kit, right? So lets get down to it and talk about ghosts

Human Experience

I cannot but think that it would be a great step if mankind could familiarize themselves with the idea that they are spirits incorporated for a time in the flesh What a man has made himself he will be; his state is the result of his past life, and his heaven or hell is in himself.

Catherine Crowe (The Night Side of Nature, 1848)

What are ghosts?

Pretty much as far back as written language goes, tales of spirits roaming the earth have been documented. And unlike other culturally centered phenomena (such as leprechauns in Ireland), ghosts are present in every religion, country, and history. And, interestingly, though many cultures may have unique, specific types of ghosts (such as the Japanese buru buru thats said to attach itself to your spine and make you shiver), most agree on the general disposition of these spectral entities, as well as the activity that occurs around them. So what are they?

Most believe that ghosts are the spirits of once-living human beings that are lingering here on earthsometimes for their own reasons, sometimes whether they like it or not. But the definition doesnt end here. Other theories are out there. For some, ghosts are nothing more than memories that are recorded in the environment that some people can see and hear and others cannot. Another theory states that all spirits become ghosts, but only the strongest can manifest themselves for the living (this goes hand-in-hand with the idea that the entire planet is essentially haunted). Suffice it to say, there are a lot of different views concerning what ghosts are (and well discuss this in more depth later in this chapter).

Whats important to remember is that one prevailing attitude underlies every theory regarding hauntings and spirits: the phenomenon is a naturally occurring event. To put it another way, nobody out there is creating ghosts or enslaving spirits to our mortal realm. The understanding that a ghost is a completely natural thing provides the basis for two fundamental ideas that make up the world of ghost hunting: we do not have to fear ghosts, and we can scientifically research them.