by Anne Glover

Created on: September 07, 2010

Whether you are serious about beginning a ghost hunting career, or merely want to quench a thirst for paranormal investigations, there are some great resources available.  Here are some suggestions for novice ghost hunters looking to invest some reading time to learn more about investigating.

Ghost Encounters: Finding Phantoms and Understanding Them by Cassandra Eason.  Covering the bases on a variety of world perspectives, Eason offers alternative explanations about ghostly encounters.  Researchers will find it useful to give them a breadth, rather than a depth, of information about different religious traditions and how they interpret paranormal activity.  This book, although not without its flaws, will help lay the theoretical foundation for your ghost research.

How to Photograph the Paranormal by Leonore Sweet gives you a basic overview of photography before launching in to a discussion of visual anomalies like orbs common in paranormal photography.  This book also looks at ghost imagery from a variety of perspectives and may help users gain new insight into their spectral photos.

Beginners should also pick up Troy Taylor's Ghost Hunter's Guidebook.  This book gives a well organized primer on everything from investigation techniques, equipment to how to find haunted places.  Lauded as one of the most comprehensive books available on the topic, the author is an established ghost hunter who founded the American Ghost Society.  Not only does he offer personal experience as a basis for his guide, but also an evaluation of techniques that demonstrate a dedication to promoting paranormal research as a professional field.

Another basic read is The Everything Ghost Hunting Book: Tips, tools, and techniques for exploring the supernatural world by Melissa Martin Ellis.  The book's focus is primarily an overview of the technology used during paranormal investigations.  Ellis, as a noted photographer with the Rhode Island Paranormal Research Group and the American Association of Electronic Voice Phenomena, offers a lively discussion peppered with personal experience.  While not as comprehensive as Taylor's book, it still offers additional insights to the would be ghost hunter.

Conducting a Paranormal Investigation: A Training Guide by Beth Brown is also a useful resource for beginning investigators.  She gives a thorough examination of data analysis, classification methods and basic tips.  The most useful aspect of the book is its very practical approach to ghost hunting and the numerous resources and boiler-plates Brown has included: sample forms, legal contracts, interview questions, a kit/pack list and interview techniques are just a sample of the step by step guides Brown lays out.

Still thirsty for more?  In the ever more popular field of paranormal research, the book shelves will be seeing more and more additions to the literature on ghost hunting.  Its recommended that you take advantage of reader reviews and other information available on the authors before making a purchase...and bring with you a little levity to handle the sometimes prosy form of writing within the field.

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